Ab Intra
by IxAmxProngs
Summary: Draco was always fated to become a Death Eater – something he never wanted for himself. But when he catches a glimpse of fire against the night, he finds that perhaps all that is needed to crack a life set in stone can be found in the heart of the fire.
1. Just a Dream

Draco leaned against the wrought iron railing that lined the balcony upon which he stood, shivering as a breeze flitted through the otherwise empty night. It was too cold out, and too dark, but at the moment, he didn't really care. In fact, dark and cold suited his mood perfectly. He reached into the pockets of his jeans, searching furiously for a cigarette. He had been trying to quit for the past week or so, but before he allowed his mind to roam and focus on what he had shut out of his mind all day, he needed a cigarette, and everything else could be damned.

Finally discovering a slightly flattened pack of cigarettes in his back pocket, he used his wand to produce a flame small enough to light it. He took a long draught, the tip flaring red in the black of the night. He sighed in contentment as the smoke burned in the back of his throat, before nearly falling over from the resulting buzz of not having had any nicotine in over a week.

"Fuck," Draco muttered to himself, sliding down the outside wall of the manor until he was sitting, rubbing his head. "Bad idea."

After a few minutes, in which he waited for his head to clear, he finally permitted his mind to contemplate what he had had no choice but to avoid all day, due to today being his seventeenth birthday: a birthday always meant relatives that he couldn't even remember ever knowing before converging upon the manor to pinch his cheeks and tell him how grown up he looked, and assure his father that he would be a perfectly suitable heir to both the Malfoy name and the legacy of serving the Dark Lord.

As his mind touched upon this thought, Draco shuddered. This was what had been bothering him all day today. Indeed, he had dreaded this particular birthday for the last four years. He was seventeen now; in other words, he was now a man, even though he still had one more year of school to finish. Being a Malfoy man now meant that the time had come for him to become initiated as a Death Eater. To become a torturer, a murderer. To become, in other words, like his father – something he had sworn to himself years ago that he would never become.

Draco gazed up at the stars and sighed. It was a remarkably clear night – he could see the constellation Draco, for which he had been named, dotting the sky ahead. He sat on the balcony, reclining against the wall of the manor, letting his thoughts run circles through his head, waiting for his consciousness to admit defeat and allow him to sleep. He put out his cigarette, wearily running a pale hand through his shoulder length silvery-blonde hair. After few minutes of simply staring into the night, he stood up and stretched his limbs, sore from sitting too long. He headed through the French doors into his bedroom, sighing in relief as he undressed and lay between the silken sheets of his large mahogany bed and allowed sleep to claim him at last.

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He was late. The train would be leaving in a half hour, and he still wasn't ready. "Shit, shit, shit," Draco muttered to himself as he frantically pulled his robes out of his armoire, shoving them at random into his trunk. It was now September 30th; the Hogwarts Express would be leaving at 11:00, and it was now nearly 10:30 and he had not yet finished packing. He finally finished packing his clothes: now for his schoolbooks. He pulled out his wand with the hope of saving the time of looking for them all, and murmured "Accio books!" under his breath, only to have the heavy tomes all fly toward him at once, striking him in various body parts with their unforgiving corners that were sure to leave bruises.

"Draco!" called a melodic yet harried voice from down the grand staircase. "You have to go now, darling, before you miss the train!" "Coming, mother, I'm nearly finished," Draco replied through gritted teeth as he rubbed his sore arm where a nasty-looking welt was already forming. He threw the books none-too-gently (the bastards deserved it!) into his trunk along with his Nimbus 2001 and various other items he would need. He took a few seconds before leaving his room to check that his appearance in the mirror was as pristine as usual; he was the Slytherin Prince, after all.

His silvery hair hung smoothly past his shoulders, framing his pale face. His features had filled out over the years, and the almost feminine features had been replaced with an unmistakable masculinity. His eyes were a cool, deep, fathomless blue-grey, like ice. His shoulders were had broadened, and the compact muscles of his chest were just visible beneath the white t-shirt he was wearing to Platform 9 ¾ before he had to change into his school robes. He wasn't big and bulky or anything, just solid. He had changed a lot from the small, wiry boy that he had once been. The only physical aspects that had gone unchanged were the grey eyes, pale hair, flawless skin, and of course, the trademark Malfoy smirk he always beheld.

Pleased with what he saw, he stepped away from the mirror and levitated his trunk so that it floated in front of him as he headed out of his room and down the marble staircase to say goodbye to his mother before apparating to Platform 9 ¾.

Narcissa was standing at the bottom of the grand staircase, staring anxiously at a silver pocket-watch in her hand. Upon hearing Draco's approaching footsteps, she snapped the watch shut and turned to greet her son with a kiss to the cheek. "It's about time, Draco. What took you so long - standing in front of the mirror again all morning, I dare say," Narcissa said, a wry smile adorning her pale face. Draco blushed and muttered some incoherent excuse under his breath, although he knew that his mother was only joking. "Well, I'm ready, aren't I?" Draco said, the defensive tone he had attempted to adopt failing completely due to his own smile; he only ever saw his mother happy when his father was gone, and he relished the little time he had with her. "Well then, you must be going. This is your last year of school, you don't want to start it off by being late," Narcissa said, her mood seeming to dim a little. Draco, not missing the sadness in his mother's voice, set down his trunk and pulled her into a hug. "Don't worry, mother," he said. "I'll write you every night, so we'll still be in touch. And it's not like you'll be all alone here, you have Isabelle to keep you company, after all." Isabelle was his mother's maid, and the two women had always been close; Isabelle was the only one Narcissa had to talk to about the fear she held for both herself and Draco that Lucius had constantly filled her with. "Yes, I know," Narcissa replied. "But it's a mother's job to worry about her son while he's away." They pulled away from each other's embrace. "I'll be fine mother, it's only school. But I really must be going now, or I will be late." Narcissa gave Draco another peck on the cheek, replying, "Yes, get going then. But don't forget to write to me at least every now and then, or you will find a very angry mother waiting for you when the holidays come around."

Draco laughed, before picking up his trunk and stepping out of the entranceway unto the threshold so that he could apparate. The last thing he saw was his mother standing in the doorway waving goodbye, before he turned into the suffocating blackness of apparating and disappeared.

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Ginny waved goodbye to her rather tearful mother as she lugged her heavy trunk aboard the Hogwarts Express. She really wasn't looking forward to having to drag it all the way to the back of the train; the train was due to leave in less than a minute, and nearly all of the compartments were sure to be full. Groaning inwardly, she grabbed her trunk with both hands and began searching for a compartment.

Fifteen minutes and two extremely arms later, Ginny was nearing the back of the train. She only had two comparments left to check. A glance in the window of the first one provided her with an unwelcome sight of a couple thrashing about wildly upon the seats, snogging ferociously. Crinkling her nose in disgust, she moved on to the second one. She slid open the door, and sighed with relief as she found it to be empty. She pulled her trunk inside, stowing it clumsily onto the luggage rack above her head before sinking gratefully into the seat and rubbing her stiff arms, glad for the fact that there was no one in here to bother her. It wasn't like she didn't enjoy the company of others, because she did, and had quite a few friends to show for it. But when one has lived in a house with 6 brothers for a full 16 years, one is always glad to receive a little peace and quiet.

She gazed out the window at the passing scenery, twirling a long strand of her fiery red hair around her finger. She was happy that she was finally going back to Hogwarts, and couldn't wait to get there. She had missed her friends, the dormitory where she slept, and even the classes. At least they gave her somewhat of a challenge, something to set her mind to. None of the teachers, not even Snape, ever gave her much trouble, for she always had done well in all of her classes.

Yawning widely, she lay her head against the cool glass. She hadn't gotten much sleep last night, due to the fact that Fred and George had come to see her and Ron before they had to go back to Hogwarts. After a few minutes of staring at the empty seat opposite her, her emerald green eyes slowly closed as she slid into her dreams.

_She was walking through the corridors of Hogwarts, somewhere near the dungeons, judging by the thin layer of slime upon the walls. It was dark and cold, and she shivered when suddenly a figure grabbed her from behind, wrapping her in strong arms that she could not escape from. But in the dream, she found she didn't want to. Instead she giggled as a man's mouth kissed the side of her neck. "You scared me," she whined playfully, turning so that she could return the man's embrace. "God I missed you," she said, her voice sincere as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "I know. I've missed you too, Gin." replied a voice that soothed her. She leaned up to look at him, but only his fathomless grey eyes were visible in the dark._

Ginny awoke with a start just as the many towers and turrets of Hogwarts were sliding into view. She yawned yet again, shaking the last cobwebs of sleep from her mind so that she could put on her school robes. She was confused, and yet curious about the dream. She had a track record of dreaming things that came true later; her brothers often teased her for it, telling her that if she wasn't careful she'd turn out like Professor Trelawney.

She finished putting on her school clothes, and filed the dream away in her mind to contemplate later. Right now all she was interested in was seeing her friends, the feast, and then being able to fall asleep in her dormitory; she would worry about the strange dream later, or perhaps not at all. It was probably nothing, she told herself. Just a dream.

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A/N: This is my first fanfic, so review! Even if you tell me it sucks, I don't mind. I know there's not much in it now, but there will be more, I promise.


	2. A Realization

Draco reclined upon one of the black leather armchairs in the Slytherin common room, his perfectly-shined shoes propped up on a footstool and a glass of wine held in his hand. Blaise, along with Pansy, were the only other people in the common room; the rest of the house had gone straight to bed, stuffed full of the wide assortment of foods that had been provided at the Welcoming Feast.

Draco sighed and sat up straight, draining the last mouthful of wine from his wineglass. He used his wand to levitate the bottle of Merlot to him and poured himself more, and noticing that both Pansy's and Blaise's glasses were empty, filled theirs as well. They each nodded their heads in thanks, when Pansy, a look of worry upon her round face, said, "Draco, what's wrong? You seem distant tonight."

"Oh, it's nothing that you don't already know about," Draco replied, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "I just have absolutely no idea what to do – I have 9 months of freedom left. A little over one-half year before my asshole of a father whisks me away to become a Death Eater." Draco looked up at his friends, glad that they were here to at least listen. The three came from circumstances that were very much the same, and they had sort of come together, supporting each other through each of the trials they faced. The bond they shared was rare, if not unique, especially among the Slytherins.

"Don't worry, mate," Blaise replied, his golden, wolf-like eyes darkening. "We'll find a way, somehow. And if we cannot find one, then we'll just have to make one."

Draco nodded and attempted a smile, although he knew that his attempt at masking his emotions was futile. Blaise and Pansy knew him far too well for him to get past them with much of anything.

"Come on, Drake, you know as well as I do that you can find a way out of this. I don't think your father knows what he's up against in trying to force you to do something you don't want," Pansy said in a soothing voice, not at all like the annoying tone she always adopted when they were around others: the group had decided that it would be for the best if they only acted like themselves around each other, lest their families find out somehow just how much they abhorred the beliefs and practices they held. In public, therefore, Pansy was clingy and annoying; Blaise was a self-righteous prick; and Draco was the arrogant, sneering Slytherin Prince. It was a system that worked well, for the students of Hogwarts were all too shallow to bother looking any deeper into a person than what they saw on the surface.

"Well, we all know that I'm stubborn enough to at least put up a fight," Draco conceded, talking more to himself than to his friends as he stared at the orange flames burning in the ornate, serpentine fireplace.

"No arguments there," Blaise replied, a taunting smile adorning his aristocratic features.

"Prick," Draco said without any real venom, throwing an embroidered pillow at Blaise's head, which he dodged easily.

"Hey," Blaise pouted pathetically. "I was basically saying that you were right!"

Draco smirked, taking another sip of Merlot. "I always am, my friend. I always am."

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Ginny sat Indian-style upon the edge of her four-poster bed, her pale face flushed from laughter and her emerald green eyes sparkling mischievously. The cause for hilarity was Ginny's best friend, Ally, who at the moment was transfiguring the nose hairs of the already-sleeping Sarah – a girl with a distinctly Hermione-ish personality – bright blue. The effect of this was that Ginny and the other two girls, Cass and Ally, were laughing their asses off. It probably wasn't quite fair of Ginny to find the whole occurrence so funny, because she knew she'd be extremely pissed if it were her. But really, Ginny thought to herself, it's her own fault: Sarah should have known full well by now what happened to the first person asleep on the first night back at Hogwarts.

Ginny laughed even harder as she watched Ally trying to stifle her own giggles so as to not wake Sarah, the inside of who's nose could now be seen to be a bright, electric blue every time she flared her nostrils in sleep.

"You realize she's going to kill you tomorrow, right?" Ginny said, clutching a stitch in her side from laughing too much.

"Yeah. But it was completely worth it," Ally replied, hurriedly suppressing a fresh round of laughter as Sarah rolled over in her sleep, mumbling something that sounded suspiciously like 'gay cowboys'.

At this all four girls in the dormitory couldn't help but bust up laughing. Unfortunately the sudden and obnoxious noise awoke a very irate Sarah, who yelled that if they woke her up again she would hex them into slugs. "Charming," muttered Cass, causing Ginny to snort loudly. They said no more on the matter, however, deciding that it _was_ time to go to bed. They each said good night, the ghosts of laughter still in the corners of their mouths and eyes as they shut off the lights and closed the canopies around their beds.

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Ginny awoke the next morning to being repeatedly hit over the head by a soft, yet extremely annoying object. She cracked one eye open, only to squeeze it shut again as she caught sight of a pillow flying at her face.

"Stop it, God damnit!" Ginny muttered angrily, opening both eyes this time and grabbing the pillow out of the air just before it hit her in the face. She looked up to see Ally and Cass standing by the bed, both already dressed and talking nonchalantly although she could tell they were trying not to laugh.

"It's time to get up," Cass said. "If you want to have time to eat breakfast, we've got to get down there within the next few minutes or so, before all the good food is gone."

Ginny groaned and crawled unwillingly from beneath the warmth of the covers. She pulled her school clothes out of her trunk and hurriedly got dressed before heading to the bathroom. She glanced at her reflection in the mirror, where a slightly grumpy looking expression adorned her pale, freckle-dusted face. She brushed her teeth, and then her hair, which she pulled into a messy ponytail that left her long hair hanging in a red cascade down her back. Deeming herself suitable enough to be seen in public, she left the bathroom, slipped on her shoes, and headed down to breakfast with Ally and Cass.

They sat down somewhere near the middle of the table, across from Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who had their heads together whispering mysteriously about some big secret that the rest of the house apparently wasn't worthy enough to know. Rolling her eyes at how dramatic they were, Ginny reached for a cup of coffee, knowing full well that if she were to stay awake today, she'd need it.

She slowly sipped her coffee, joining in somewhat on the conversation Cass and Ally were having about whether or not the classes were likely to be too difficult this year and such, although she wasn't really paying much attention. She allowed her eyes to roam the hall, seeking out the faces of those she recognized and hadn't seen since last term. Eventually her sight rested upon the Slytherin table, where Draco Malfoy sat with Blaise Zabini, and of course, his lapdog Parkinson. Malfoy's hair had grown out over the summer, Ginny noticed absentmindedly. It now hung sleekly past his shoulders, and she had to admit, long hair suited him. She continued to watch them idly, when she saw Zabini say something to Malfoy, to which Malfoy responded with a confused expression quickly followed by a smirk. Malfoy then turned his blonde head, and looked straight at her with a pair of deep, grey eyes. Grey eyes exactly like the ones she had seen in the dream on the train…

Ginny quickly turned her head away as she realized that Malfoy had seen her staring. Bleh. Now he'd probably think she was fawning after him like Parkinson and half of the other dumb bimbos at Hogwarts, and that was the last thing she needed. She threw herself back into Cass's and Ally's conversation, forcing herself to focus so that she wouldn't zone out again. But her treacherous mind wouldn't listen, and Malfoy's piercing grey eyes, so like the ones in the dream, kept their gaze on her in her mind.

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Draco sat with Blaise and Pansy at their usual spot at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall, pulling eggs, sausage, bacon, and whatever else was within reach onto his plate. He had always been a breakfast person; without it, he couldn't function. It was, after all, the most important meal of the day.

Despite the amount of food on his plate, he ate it slowly, savoring the amazing cooking of the House Elves. Blaise was on his right, looking bored as usual, while Pansy on his left was reading through her schedule.

"Hah," Blaise snorted. Draco looked up, noticing the amused look on his face. "What?" Draco said somewhat irritably at having been disturbed from his breakfast, taking a swig of pumpkin juice to wash down the scrambled eggs he had just eaten. "The Weaselette," Blaise said, looking pointedly at Draco as he gave a jerk of his head to indicate the Gryffindor table. "She's staring at you."

Draco looked up, puzzled, to find that the youngest (and by far, the most attractive) Weasly was indeed staring at him, although her cat-like green eyes looked rather unfocused. He stared back for a few seconds, until she appeared to snap out of her trance, when a look of bewilderment that completely perplexed Draco crossed her face.

"Hmm," Draco said, turning back to his food. Blaise rolled his eyes and Pansy scoffed. "Come on, Pansy," muttered Blaise in an amused tone. "You're supposed to look jealous that your Slytherin prince is paying attention to another woman."

Pansy's deep, dark eyes glittered impishly as she placed an indignant look upon her face, her thin lips pouting as she glared at Draco.

"Is this better?" Pansy asked Blaise in an undertone.

"Very much so," Blaise replied, taking a sip of his Earl Grey tea without ever looking directly at her.

Draco smirked, turning his head away to hide the fact. They could be so dramatic at times. But as he poured himself some coffee, he couldn't help wondering why she had been staring at him. Shrugging to himself, he decided that it must be simply his looks, devilishly attractive as he was.

A/N: Well, I'm getting there, aren't I? It'll be Draco/Ginny soon, I swear.


	3. Smoke and Mirrors

Ginny lay upon her bed in the girl's dormitory, feigning sleep until the chorus of snores issuing up from around her assured her that she was indeed the only one awake. She waited a few more minutes to be absolutely sure before slipping silently from beneath the covers, padding silently upon slippered-feet until she reached the tallest window in the room, stopping to grab her wand and her cloak from where they rested on top of her trunk.

She wrapped her cloak tightly around her slim form, using her wand to unlock and open the window before her. She stepped out onto the window sill, climbing carefully down to the slated roof of the tower. She sat down, situating herself so that she was leaning against the inclined roof, her feet propped against the edge where it curved inward so that she wouldn't fall. A breath of cool autumn wind made its way across the empty grounds, tangling itself in her long, fiery hair. She smiled wistfully, running a delicate hand through her hair as she tried to separate the strands, but then she gave up as another gust blew over her. She laughed out loud as the wind knotted her hair even further, making it dance in the sky like fire. She leaned her face up to meet the night, her gaze taking in the enthralling sight of the stars and crescent moon shining against a backdrop of black.

She inhaled deeply, glad for the quiet of the night. She'd had a hectic week so far, as she had known beforehand that it would be. But now it was Friday; there were no classes for the next two days, no need to get up at ungodly hours of the morning, and no need to work her ass off just to get all of her homework done. For now all of her work was done, and until she got back into the routine of going to school all week, she was unbelievably exhausted and glad that it was now the weekend. Now she could sit outside all night, resting from her frantic week, and watch the trees wave at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, the mirror-like surface of the lake resting tranquilly beneath the stars that presided over the still and lifeless grounds.

Except…wait a minute. The grounds weren't exactly still and lifeless. By the light of the moon she could just see a dark, shadowy figure making its way across the grounds. By the broadness of the figure's shoulders and its height (as far as she could tell from being above him), the figure appeared to be male. She saw him sit down by the tree near the silvery, unmoving lake, pulling something out of his pockets before a flame shone through the night and was replaced by a cloud of smoke and the glowing, red-hot cherry of what she presumed to be a cigarette. She could see the figure occasionally taking a drag off of his cigarette, running his hands through his hair, apparently deep in thought. Ginny was curious now: She wanted to know who was sneaking around the grounds at nearly two o'clock in the morning, and she wanted to know why. She had always been naturally curious, and was never satisfied until she knew the answers to everything. This was much of what motivated her to do well in school; simply being inquisitive.

Making up her mind to find out who was down there, she snuck back into the window of the dormitory, digging through her trunk until she found her old Cleansweep 7. It may not have been the best broom on the line, but it had been her first real broomstick, and was a pretty damn good one too. And it would, at least, serve her the purpose of knowing who in the hell was down there. She moved back to the window, mounting her broomstick as she went before zooming out the window. The first rush of euphoria she felt at being back in the air was quickly dispelled by her curiosity. The figure hadn't moved; he was still sitting by the lake, leaning back against the tree. From the way his chest was moving slowly up and down, she could almost think him to be asleep. But then he pulled his legs up to his chest and appeared to gaze out over the lake, lighting another cigarette that he had pulled out of his pocket.

She flew silently until she reached the tree beneath which he sat, alighting silently onto a branch and dismounting to sit upon it, clutching her broom in her hand, careful to keep it from rustling the leaves. As her eyes got used to the dark, she peered through the leaves below her. The top of his head, she could now see, shone silver in the obscurity of the night. She heard him sigh wearily, muttering to himself, although she couldn't quite make out what he was saying. He appeared to be troubled about something or other – this would certainly explain the man's chain smoking – and as she tried to climb onto a lower branch so that she could hear better, the branch upon which one foot had stepped upon gave a tremendous crack and snapped in half, causing her to fall headfirst out of the branches. She saw the figure look up, a handsome, pale face inset with grey eyes looking immeasurably (and almost comically) shocked, before the ground rushed up to meet her.

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Draco sat by the tree near the edge of the lake, the curve of his back fitting perfectly into an indent in its ancient trunk that he was sure had been formed by many others before him, and like him choosing this spot of the tree to lean upon. Perhaps they, too, had been plagued by the tortures of their lives, and had sat here with some hope that the old tree held some elemental wisdom to help them solve whatever troubles they had. Now, however, it appeared this was not the case. No matter how he looked at it, he could think of no feasible way to escape the legacy his father had started. He absolutely despised the Dark Lord and his ways. He had seen what being a Death Eater had made his father into. According to his mother, the man she had married had once been different. One could have sufficed to say that he was a "good man." But Lucius had always thought that muggles and half-bloods had been beneath him; the Malfoys were, after all, one of the oldest wizarding lines still in existence. And after the appearance of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, Lucius had joined right up with the Death Eaters, hoping to establish the Malfoy name with the entire world once the wizards came out into the open again. At first, or so Draco's mother told him, Lucius had not agreed with all of the Dark Lord's methods, but had done them because he had no other choice. Slowly he grew to accept them more readily, even relishing them until after years upon years, the monster that was Draco's father today was created. And now he was trying to turn him, Draco, into the same thing.

Draco lit up a cigarette, exhaling furiously into the night. What could he possibly do? He was only 17, yet in order to stand up for what he himself believed in, he would have to stand up to his father, Lord Voldemort himself, not to mention the forces both the former and the latter had behind them.

"What choice do I have?" Draco said out loud to himself. "Unless a meteor falls from the sky and kills me now, I have no other option but to become a Death Eater." He groaned, fighting the urge to start punching the tree, when all of a sudden, a crack from above his head made him look up. His eyes widened in surprise when what appeared to be a torrent of flames rushed down upon him. A second look made him realize that it was not fire, but hair. Hair that was red, red just like fire. The hair was even attached to a head, and a body. A body that was about to meet a very painful stop once it hit the solid, unforgiving ground. "Fuck," Draco muttered, his instincts taking over as he leaped up just in time to catch the falling body in his arms.

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Ginny awoke to large, strong hands that alternated between pushing her hair out of her face and shaking her, and a voice repeatedly saying, "Weasley. Wake up. Come on, damnit, open your damned eyes!"

She opened her eyes a slit, groaning as the throbbing in her skull threatened to overwhelm her and force her back into unconsciousness. "Come on, Weasley. Please wake up." The voice sounded almost desperate, and made her fully open her eyes at once to see who it was.

The face in front of her startled her so much that it even made her forget about her painful head. "Malfoy?" she asked, her voice laced with confusion.

Draco let out a breath he hadn't even realized he had been holding and smiled, strangely relieved that the small redhead was okay. She had scared the shit out of him, and he was glad that he wouldn't have to carry her, unconscious, into the school. He'd have a hell of a time explaining that one.

"Finally, Weasley" Draco said, changing his smile into a smirk at once. "You've been out for nearly five minutes. And I'm pretty sure you hit your head a few times on the way down."

"I'm fine," she said (although he hadn't really asked) as she attempted to sit up, the pain returning to her head at once and nearly causing her to fall over again. Draco leaned her up against the trunk of the tree as she rubbed her head. "Fuck…" she muttered to herself, rubbing her aching head.

"Such language," Draco said shaking his head, a smirk still playing on his lips that widened when he saw the way she glared at him from beneath her long, disheveled red hair. He didn't miss, either, the way her green eyes had flashed, visible even in the dark, or the way her full lips had tightened, as though ready to curse his insides out. He found the whole facade to be rather enticing, actually.

"Shut up, Malfoy. It damn well hurts, you'd be swearing too."

"Well, what were you doing spying on me up in a tree, anyway?" Draco said, running his hands through his blonde hair, apparently subconsciously. "I know I'm good-looking and all, but I don't think I've ever had a girl go to the length of stalking me on my midnight prowls."

"I wasn't spying on you, I was out flying so I could get a bit of fresh air, and I fell off my broom, okay?" Ginny lied, glad that the darkness hid the blush creeping over her cheeks; it did sound rather bad when he put it like that. "I didn't even know you were there, otherwise I would've chosen somewhere else to fall off, believe me."

"Alright, alright," Draco said, holding up his hands in mock defeat. "It was only a question, love, no need to get so defensive."

Ginny looked up at him suspiciously, wondering what he was playing at. His comments may have been slightly mocking, but they hadn't been spoken with the usual venom she had always seen displayed from him. Deciding not to say anything about it, she changed the subject, asking, "Where's my broom? I need to get back to my dormitory before someone realizes I've gone missing."

Draco coughed loudly, picking up what apparently used to be her broomstick, although it was now snapped cleanly in half. "Er. You mean this broomstick?"

Ginny groaned aloud, surveying her ruined broom: She must have snapped against a tree branch on her fall down. "Damnit. Now I suppose I'll just have to go all the way back through the school." She tried to stand up, but the action worsened the throbbing in her skull so much that this time she did fall back over, landing on her butt in the grass. The last thing she saw before she lost consciousness was Malfoy leaning over her, shaking his head exasperatedly.

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Ginny awoke sometime later upon an unfamiliar leather couch in an unfamiliar room. There was a blanket thrown over her, and she could feel that someone had removed both her cloak and her shoes. In an attempt to get her bearings she sat up, only to have a rush of pain assail her senses. After cursing profusely for several minutes, she tried again, only slower this time. In front of her she could see a large fireplace, the sides of it shaped into the likeness of two interwoven serpents. A fire burned in the fireplace, throwing leaping shadows onto the stone floor. A quick look around the room showed that it was a rather large room, decorated with leather and wrought iron furniture. She stood up gradually, when a voice behind her made her jump.

"Ahh. So she lives."

The comment came, as far as Ginny could tell, from Blaise Zabini, whom she could now see was sitting behind the couch on a black leather armchair, and beside him in two separate armchairs were Malfoy (whom, Ginny did not fail to see, was currently shirtless) and Pansy Parkinson. So she must be in the Slytherin common room…she remembered falling from the tree, and then passing out again…but why the hell was she here?

Her confusion must have shown on her face, for Malfoy was smirking; Blaise rolled his eyes; and Pansy had a mixture of pity and amusement inscribed upon her face.

"Would you like to sit and have some wine?" Pansy asked politely, although a smirk was forming at the corners of her lips.

"Uh. Sure," Ginny said, completely perplexed at the manner in which Pansy was presenting herself. Usually the girl was obnoxious and clingy, constantly flipping her dark hair out of her face so as to better fawn after Malfoy. But now she was sitting on a separate chair a full arm's length away from Malfoy, not giving him any subtle eyelash-batting or lip-biting. Indeed her legs were crossed, a wineglass was held in her hand, and her posture was perfectly straight, not leaning towards Draco in any way.

Pansy produced her wand from inside the pocket of her red, satin robe and levitated one of the leather armchairs over to sit in front of theirs. After Ginny seated herself, Pansy then levitated a bottle of Merlot and a wineglass to the table sitting in front of them and poured the glass half full of red wine. "There's a bottle of Cabernet Sauvigon in the cabinet as well, if you'd like to blend the two."

"No, I'm fine, thank you," Ginny said, accepting the glass. Then, turning to Malfoy she said, "But I would kind of like to know why I'm in the Slytherin common room."

Draco raised an eyebrow, and sipping from his own wineglass said, "Well, I couldn't very well take you back to your own dormitory when I haven't any idea where it is. And taking you to the hospital at this hour of the morning would have raised some awkward questions, I'm sure."

Ginny nodded; he was right, after all. But her confusion was not entirely dispelled. There was still the matter of why Malfoy hadn't simply left her out there under the tree. He was _Draco Malfoy_, after all, the torturer of Ron, Harry, Hermione, and anyone else unfortunate enough to get in his way; he was the son of a Death Eater, a hater of muggles, mudbloods, and blood-traitors – so what in Merlin's name was going on? Even Parkinson and Zabini were acting strangely. Blaise wasn't looking down upon her with his nose turned up in the air, or making any arrogant remarks about how he wanted to get in her pants…Damnit, they were confusing her.

"Well, Draco's obviously explained to us what happened tonight," Blaise said, watching her closely. "So you're welcome to stay for a bit longer, but by six it would be best for your own safety if you return to your dormitory."

"Of course," Ginny said, returning his glance hesitantly. She distractedly took a sip of the wine, and based upon her few experiences in wine tasting, decided that it could have used some of the Cabernet Sauvigon. She said nothing, however, deciding instead to focus closely on the three in front of her. So far none of them had made any sardonic, threatening, or offensive comments to her. They seemed so…different from what she had seen of them, and it both ensnared and mystified her.

"Weasley," Malfoy said from where he sat directly ahead of her. "It's not polite to stare, you know."

Ginny felt a blush begin to creep up her cheeks, before an idea came to her. It was her damned curiosity again, and while last time it had ended up with her falling out of a tree, she had to know what was up with them. They were absolutely nothing like they were in public - especially Malfoy. Malfoy had definitely had something bothering him by the lake, he had showed her some amount of compassion by not simply leaving her under the tree, and now he and his friends were acting…well…_nice._ And she wanted to know why.

"I was just wondering what was wrong, _Draco_." Ginny said, purposely using his first name, knowing full well that it just might shock him enough to invoke his curiosity as well and answer her.

"Wrong?" he replied, his eyes narrowing as he processed her words. He was studying her closely with his striking grey eyes, watching her face for some hint of the joke she was sure to be playing. But as he watched her, he could see nothing other than a desire to know what was wrong. The redheaded creature in front of him certainly intrigued him; why should she care what was bothering him?

"Yes, wrong," Ginny repeated. "You were sitting alone by the lake in the middle of autumn at nearly two o'clock in the morning. You must have had something on your mind."

Draco looked at Blaise and Pansy, as though silently asking them whether or not he should say anything. Should he deny that anything was the matter? For some reason, he didn't want to. She looked both concerned and curious, and he felt strangely like he should tell her. Pansy ran her hand through her short, dark hair and turned pointedly away to pour herself some more wine. Draco had a knack for reading body language, and he knew Pansy. She didn't think he should hide it either. Her reason for turning away and pouring herself some wine was that she thought the conversation should continue as it was. He then looked at Blaise, who stared back and gave a barely perceptible incline of his dark head. Making up his mind to be honest, and figuring that he had nothing to lose by doing so, Draco began.

"I was outside alone because cool air and moonlight always helps me to think," he said, looking down at the wineglass held in his hand. "And I have certainly needed help thinking as of late, unless I wish to become something I have never wanted to be."

Ginny looked at him, both surprised and pleased that he was telling her. It took her a moment to realize that it wasn't just her curiosity that made her ask; she genuinely wanted to know. She had always been a compassionate person, but this was slightly different.

"And what don't you want to be?" Ginny asked, but then added quickly: "If you don't want to tell me, I understand."

Pansy put her hand on Draco's arm, and without looking up, he nodded. Pansy knew that despite the fact that Draco was undoubtedly a strong person, this was the one thing that could shake him.

Pansy looked directly at Ginny, deciding that if she were to know about Draco's problem, she may as well know that all three people sitting before her had no interest in anything to do with their families' misguided beliefs, nor those of the Dark Lord. She was here; she had seen their most guarded secret: themselves, as they were, without the smoke and mirrors. She may as well know why.

"As you probably already know, Draco, Blaise, and I all come from families that support the Dark Lord. We all come from ancient wizarding families that hate mudbloods and blood-traitors, and yet, we have all three decided that we are nothing like our families. The beliefs they hold have made them detestable people, and because of this, we want to be nothing like them. The way you see us at Hogwarts is the way our parents would want us to be, and that is what we show lest they find out that we want nothing to do with the way we were raised and disown us, or worse. Each of our families wants things from us that we have no intention of giving them. So far, we have managed to stand together against them through those trials: Silently, but surely." Pansy took a deep breath, glancing at Draco, who signaled her to continue. "As of course you know, Draco's father is a Death Eater. He wants Draco to continue that legacy. And thus far, we can think of no way to prevent it without Draco himself getting killed."

Ginny stared at the three Slytherins in front of her, and suddenly the events she had witnessed tonight made perfect sense. Unlike she, who had been raised in a family that had influenced her beliefs on hating "evil", these three were trying to stand alone against their families based upon their own beliefs. How mistaken she had been to think that they were just like all the other Slytherins, just like what she had thought she knew of them.

She looked up at Draco, who was still staring intently down at his now empty glass of wine. He was wearing a pair of black silk pajama pants, and his bare, muscled chest was visible where he had apparently deciding that the donning of a shirt was not necessary. His shoulder-length blonde hair was pulled out of his face into a ponytail, and his fathomless, grey eyes were unfocused and pondering. She wanted to help him, somehow, but she knew it was not her place. What right did she, an outsider, have to intrude upon these three? She realized now that they had faced so much, and still had so much more to face as well.

Ginny took a breath, looking at Draco. "I'm sorry," she said sincerely.

Draco looked up at her, and while his expression was slightly pained, he also looked inquisitive. "Why?" he said simply.

"Because nobody should have to deal with all of this," Ginny replied, her gaze strong. "How can anybody who calls themselves a father force this upon their child?" She was angry now. Her famous Weasley temper was showing through, to these strangers, but right now, she didn't care.

"It's not your burden, it's mine," Draco said. "I've already brought it upon Blaise and Pansy more than I should have, but I can't help that now. I don't need you getting involved too."

"I asked didn't I?" Ginny said. "I just had no idea…" The fire went out of her, and she looked at Draco with a look that was close to pity.

Draco, not missing this, gave her a hard look. "I don't want your pity," he said bitterly. "We told you because you had already seen how we were when not around others. We can figure it out somehow. If your head is feeling better, you can go back to your dormitory now. Don't worry about us; it's not your place, Weasley."

"My name is Ginny," Ginny replied, looking back at him determinedly. "And don't talk to me about remembering my place, when you are obviously trying so hard not to be in yours. What would happen if we all stayed in our place? You would be a Death Eater, and I would be sitting in my bedroom not worrying about anything. But I am, and I can't help that anymore than you can help not wanting to become a Death Eater."

Blaise and Pansy looked back and forth between Draco and Ginny. The former's eyes had darkened until they were almost black, and the latter's hair was nearly buzzing with her own determination. Finally, it appeared they had found someone just as stubborn as their Draco. They were quite proud, actually.

"Ginny," Draco said, his teeth clenched. "Please. Just go now, and don't bother yourself with it. Forget about it. I can handle it myself."

Blaise, in a moment of bravery, interrupted him, pulling him aside so that he could talk with him alone. "Draco, face it. She knows now. Obviously she's not going to let it go. Why don't you let her stay? Besides, she's interesting. She's every bit as hardheaded as you are, and for whatever reason, she apparently cares. She's known around the school for her grades, so she's obviously intelligent. Why not see if she can help?"

Draco looked at his friend strangely, knowing that he obviously felt strongly about this; otherwise he wouldn't have said anything. Blaise may have been a prick, but he knew when to stand aside if Draco was angry.

Draco looked over at Ginny, who was glaring at her wineglass. If she wasn't careful, that look might possibly cause it to shatter. Blaise was right: She was as hardheaded as he was.

"Fine," he whispered back. "But what exactly are you suggesting we do? Invite her over every night to tell stories and drink wine? I think our other housemates might have a slight problem with that, don't you think? Not only is she a Gryffindor, she's a Weasley."

"No," Blaise said. "I don't know, okay? There's just something odd about her. I know you see it, and so does Pansy. She's not like the other Gryffindors. She sees the bigger story. Otherwise why would she care about you? You're a Slytherin, and the son of a Death Eater to boot."

"She intrigues me," Draco admitted, glancing again at the fiery redhead. Her red hair was long and straight until the ends, where it had the perfect amount of wave to it. The cat-like eyes inset into her pale, lightly-freckled face were fierce and determined, and the way her delicate hands were clenched into fists showed that she was set on doing whatever she could to help them. "But the next time a girl falls into my arms at two o'clock in the morning, I am leaving her outside."

Blaise smirked, the perfect picture of aristocracy and arrogance. "Fine by me, mate. Let's go join our two lovely ladies and discuss what we're going to do then."


	4. Dark Towers and Challenges

**A/N: This chapter's not as long as I'd have liked, but here you guys go. And to gerica101, this chapter will answer you question, at least somewhat, about the dreams. ;o But anywho, I hope you guys like. Keep reviewing, please, knowing that somebody at least is reading this is what keeps me going. D**

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Blaise and Draco walked shoulder-to-shoulder back to where the chairs were grouped in front of the fireplace. They each took their respective seats, before turning to face Ginny. Draco looked at her and she stared back, a look in her green eyes that stated quite plainly that she wasn't going to let down, no matter what he said.

"Alright," he said looking up at her, the corners of his mouth turning up in amusement at the surprised look on her face.

"Alright?" she asked.

"Alright," he repeated. "You can stay for awhile longer."

Ginny went to say something, but was quickly interrupted by Draco as he raised his hand to indicate silence.

"But you must remember; you are not to, under any circumstances, tell anyone about the way you have seen us tonight. This act we put on is the only way we have thus far been able to ensure our safety. If anything you do or say jeopardizes that, we will have to act accordingly. Do you understand?"

Ginny nodded solemnly, unable to shake the feeling that she was making a vow of some sort. "I understand."

Draco said, "We've already let you see us like this, and since there's nothing we can do about that now, there's no harm in letting you stay for a little while if you really feel the need to do so. All I want to know is why you're acting like you care. You know nothing about us."

Ginny stared Draco straight in the eyes, and the hard look she threw him made him reflexively flinch back in his chair.

"To be honest, _Malfoy_, I don't give a damn about who your parents are or what house you're in. But the way you guys have to stand against all of this _does_ bother me. And yeah, obviously, I don't know a goddamned thing about any of you. But apparently, despite the differences in the way we were raised, we all want the same thing. And that's enough for me to want to find out why, and offer some input if I can."

Blaise had one eyebrow cocked in amusement, and Pansy looked like she wanted to applaud the girl's outburst. This Ginny was certainly a bold one.

"Yeah?" Draco said flaring up at once. "And what makes you think you can do anything to help?"

"I don't know," Ginny said, some of the fire going out of her. "I don't know, okay? But I'm not the type of person who can just sit back and let something like this go. Whether you like it or not, I'm here now, and I know. If you'd prefer it, I can leave now. But I won't forget. I can't."

At this she stood up, walking around the couch and left out the door, leaving a slightly stunned and silent group behind her. As her long red hair whipped out of the room after her, Pansy shook her head and sighed. "You do seem to have such a way with women, Draco. It must be your charm."

"Shut up," Draco muttered, turning back to his wine. He hadn't meant to seem like such an asshole, but the girl had managed to just get under his skin – all within twenty minutes of knowing her. He still couldn't see why she should care so damn much when she didn't even know anything about them. The only explanation was that she had some ulterior motive. He couldn't for the life of him see what it could be, but it was the only reasonable explanation. Other than Blaise, Pansy, and his mother, he had never before met anyone that had cared for him. It was a foreign concept to him, and one that he simply couldn't understand. The way he had been raised had forced him to accept that people never would bother with him unless they got something in return..

"Well," Blaise said, his voice cutting through the awkward silence. "What now? She knows, Draco. What if she tells somebody?"

"I don't think she will," Pansy cut in thoughtfully.

"Yeah?" Draco asked looking up from where he had previously been staring down at his knees. "And what makes you say that?"

"I don't know exactly," Pansy said, gazing pensively into the fireplace where the dancing flames were reflected in her dark eyes. "She's certainly an enigma. Even I can't quite figure out why she responded to our situation like she did. But I don't think we have to worry about her saying something to the wrong people, or indeed, to any person at all."

"I hope so," was the only thing said by Blaise in response. Draco, however, said nothing at all, and proceeded to stare down at the floor as though the answers to all his problems could be found inscribed upon the cold, stone floor.

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Ginny woke up on Monday morning tired as hell, as she had known full well she would be due to the little sleep she had managed to get over the weekend. She took a shower, got dressed, and ate her breakfast like she did every morning; then she attended her classes, took notes, and made sure to do all her work. Hours passed, and though she participated in everything around her, her mind just wasn't there. Her mind was in the Slytherin common room, where the serpentine fireplace stood sentry over all the events she had witnessed the night before. It was just so unbelievable, and yet it totally explained everything. She couldn't even imagine having to be strong enough to stand against her family and everything she had been taught to believe.

During dinner she sat with Ally and Cass as usual, picking at her food unenthusiastically. Luckily, her two friends were too busy charming the salt and pepper cellars to jump away from people every time they reached for them to notice that something was wrong with her. Though she had willed them not to, her eyes constantly roamed to the Slytherin table. Pansy was clinging onto Malfoy's arm, and Malfoy was sneering at something that Blaise had just apparently said or done. But every once in awhile, or maybe she was just imagining it, Malfoy's grey eyes meandered over the Gryffindor table until they found her. He didn't look angry, or pleading, or anything else: just searching. They bored into her until she thought they would drill a hole in her head, and then they would both turn away, only to have their eyes meet once more over the heads of their classmates and the many tureens and platters of food that were stacked upon the tables.

She left dinner with Cass and Ally, and they had just made it a corridor away when her bag broke, spilling her books, her quills, and a couple bottles of ink, which splattered in dark puddles like blood upon the stone floor.

"Shit," she muttered, bending down to pick up her things. Ally and Cass stopped to help her, but she shooed them on telling them to go on and that she'd meet them in the common room. Shrugging, they walked away, leaving Ginny alone in the corridor.

All of a sudden, a hand closed roughly around her upper shoulder, pulling her behind a tapestry of two dueling wizards.

"Hey –," Ginny said, intuitively reaching for her wand, but before she could remove it from her pocket a pair of strong arms wrapped around her shoulders, forcing her arms down.

"Relax," a deep voice said. "It's me."

Peering through the near total darkness, she caught sight of a pair of deep grey eyes and silvery blonde hair.

"Malfoy," she said through gritted teeth. "What in the hell are you doing?"

"Malfoy?" he asked. "I thought we were on first name terms now, _Ginny_."

"Perhaps," Ginny said, still resisting the urge to hex him. "But that does not, however, give you the right to go along pulling me behind tapestries. You're lucky I didn't hex you, damnit, you scared the shit out of me."

"I just wanted to return your cloak, and I figured you wouldn't want your friends to see me do so," he said. "You forgot to take it when you stormed out of the common room last night."

"Oh," Ginny said, as she felt his strong, rough hands grab hers and stuff a ball of material into her open palm. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," he said, and from the way he said it, Ginny could practically see him smirking, despite the fact that she could hardly see her own hand in front of her face. He then pulled open the tapestry and left her standing there thinking about just how much his grey eyes in the dark had resembled those in her dream. Then, shaking her head a couple of times to clear it, she left the corridor and returned to the common room. She sat in one of the overstuffed armchairs in front of the fireplace and played a couple of rounds of Exploding Snap with Ally and Cass, before claiming exhaustion and heading to bed, despite it being only eight o'clock.

As she arrived in the thankfully empty dormitory, she took her crumpled cloak out of the pocket of her robes so that she could hang it in her wardrobe. But as she was doing so, a folded-up slip of parchment fell out of the creases and landed on the floor by her feet.

Perplexedly, she stooped down to pick it up, unfolding it as she walked back to her bed and sat down. In wide, slanting writing it read solely:

_The Astronomy Tower – midnight._

Ginny stared down at the piece of parchment held in her hands, completely bewildered as to why Malfoy would want to meet her tonight. Last night, or so it seemed, he had made it clear that he didn't want her intruding…so why would he want to meet her? To make sure that she wasn't going to tell anybody what she had witnessed? To try to buy her off and ensure her silence? Or perhaps to apologize for being completely obnoxious the night before? (Although she doubted that it'd be the latter.)

She simply sat there for awhile, trying to decide whether or not she should bother going. He had been, in all honesty, an absolute asshole the night before. Admittedly, she could see why he would not want her, an outsider, imposing on the one thing they had tried so hard to hide, but still. If he didn't want her around, why would he want to meet her? If she didn't want somebody around her, she would simply cut off all contact with them and make sure that they knew she did not desire their presence whatsoever. So it appeared this was not the case with Draco…apparently she _had_ managed to pique his curiosity as well. After a few minutes of mulling it over, she decided she had nothing to lose by going, except maybe a few more hours of sleep.

She lay down upon her bed, deciding to get a couple hours of sleep before she had to go. Without even so much as removing her shoes, she passed quickly and deeply into sleep like a stone sinking beneath the surface of the water.

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Draco sat on the dusty ground at the top of the Astronomy Tower, waiting to see whether or not Ginny would actually show up. He wouldn't blame her if she didn't, but he thought she would. He sat there rather ruefully, running his hand distractedly through his hair. Coming here and meeting with Ginny certainly hadn't been his idea; no, he had too much pride for that. But the idea had been suggested to him by Pansy, and even Blaise had thought that he should. He had protested at first, but had been quickly outvoted. Apparently his two friends had liked Ginny more than he'd realized, for whatever reason. So he had begrudgingly decided to go, if only to get Blaise and Pansy to stop annoying him about it. Admittedly, he did agree with them somewhat. He just didn't see why he should be the one to do it. "Well, you're the one that brought her here in the first place," Blaise had said, smirking wryly when Draco mentioned this. So now Draco found himself to be sitting on the cold ground of the highest tower in Hogwarts, waiting to see if the fiery tempered redhead would actually decide to show up.

Within ten minutes he had his answer. He could hear light footsteps swiftly climbing the stairs, and he knew that she was coming. He stood up, wiping the dust from the floor from his backside as he did so, wondering what exactly he was supposed to say, and wishing that he had thought of it beforehand. _"Too late now,_" he thought to himself as Ginny's slender figure came into view, her hips swaying lightly as she walked toward him, dressed in a pair of sweatpants and a tank-top that, Draco couldn't help but notice, was barely large enough to conceal her chest. Forcing his head to look up (it wasn't his fault, he was _male_ after all), her catlike green eyes met his own. They stared at each other for a moment, before she moved behind him to sit on the windowsill.

"You came," he observed.

"Obviously," was her reply, and as he turned to look at her he could see that she was smirking. "So what do you want? I've obviously agreed to leave you three alone. You didn't need to call me back just to soothe your conscience, I'll be fine."

"No, it's not that," he surprised himself by saying. He was even more surprised to find that he actually meant it.

"No?" she said bemusedly. "I thought you'd made yourself quite clear last night."

"I wasn't meaning to be such a –," he began, pausing at the end as if trying to find the right word.

"An asshole?" Ginny suggested.

"Yes," Draco admitted contritely. "That term would probably be fitting. You just must understand – we have worked for the past few years to hide ourselves from others, even from our own housemates. You stumbled upon it, or to be more accurate, _fell_ upon it. And instead of saying, 'Well, that sucks, but I don't really give a damn, thanks for bringing me in, I'm leaving now,' you acted like you cared. To be quite honest, I'm not used to that whatsoever."

Ginny gazed upon his features searchingly. Why was he being this honest with her? All she had expected from coming here tonight was a simple apology or explanation, and that would be it. But he was actually taking the time to explain it to her. There was even more to this enigma called Draco Malfoy than she had realized…

"Malfoy – _Draco_ – there _are_ some people who actually care if only for the sake of caring. I'm not the type of person to be able to reject you just because of who your family is or what house you're in or because there's undoubtedly been some bad blood between you, Ron, and Harry. The fact is I want to know more about this and see if I can find a way around it for you. Believe it or not, I have my ways, and I'm a hell of a lot smarter than my brother when it comes to, well, pretty much everything."

"Is that supposed to be saying something?" Draco asked without thinking.

"Shut up, Draco."

"_Si vous souhaitez, Madame_."

"That's what I thought, damnit. Now do you want me to see what I can do or not?"

"Yes," Draco said automatically, though he didn't quite look up at her. "Pansy, Blaise, and I have thought of nearly every way possible, and yet we've found nothing." He looked her fully in the eyes, and although his jaw was clenched and his eyes were pained, his gaze did not waver. "I would do almost anything to avoid what my father wants for me. But I would prefer to not have to pay with my life."

"Don't worry too much, it's not healthy for you," Ginny said, in an attempt to lighten the mood a bit, though she was not quite sure what to say.

"Don't I know it," he muttered, rubbing his eyes wearily.

"Well then?" Ginny asked. "What are we intending to do now?"

Draco, who had been previously lost in thought, jerked his head as he looked up at her. "I don't know. You really do realize that you can tell nobody about this, right?"

Instead of getting angry, Ginny took a deep breath. "I know," she said.

"Well then, I suggest that for now that we both get some sleep. I'll need to talk to Blaise and Pansy to figure out precisely what we're going to do."

"Of course," Ginny said.

"You know," Draco said abruptly. "They like you."

"Who?" Ginny asked, cocking her head as she looked at him.

"Blaise and Pansy," Draco replied. "For reasons unbeknownst to me." He smiled as he said this – a real smile, not a smirk – to show her that he only meant it as a jest.

She smiled back, though she was unconscious of doing so, and said, "Git."

"Fine. I'll let you win – this time. But now we really need to head back to our own dormitories, unless we want to get caught."

"I know," Ginny replied, standing up to head out the door. She was nearly to the door that led to the staircase, when for the second time that day, Draco grabbed her arm and spun her back until she was forced to place her hands on his chest in order to keep from fully running into him, and she was acutely aware of how close she was to him, close enough to feel the warmth radiating from his body.

"Thank you, Ginny," he said quietly, gazing down at her with those piercing grey eyes. "It means a lot to all three of us. And especially to me."

Ginny nodded her head, and being not quite able to meet his penetrating gaze due to the blush that she could feel rising over her cheeks, muttered to her feet instead. "It's nothing."

Draco looked down at her, and then took a quick step back, as though he had only just realized how close they were.

"Good night," he said rather awkwardly, once again running his fingers through his hair as, Ginny had noticed, he appeared to do whenever he was nervous. "I'll let you know, one way or another, what our plans are after I've talked with Blaise and Pansy."

"Alright," Ginny replied, still trying to hide her blush even though it was dark. She then left down the staircase, leaving Draco standing behind her staring at her long red hair that trailed behind her as she skipped quickly down the steps, as though she were quite glad to get away.

He ran a hand though his hair, deciding to lean out the window and smoke a cigarette before heading back to his own dormitory. As he lit his cigarette and inhaled deeply, savoring the effects of the nicotine, he couldn't help wondering what sort of affect this girl had on him. He hadn't meant it to seem like he was hitting on her or something by trying to pull her into him, it had just been an accident, an instinctive action. He honestly hadn't meant anything by it. If she were to help him somehow, he didn't want her to think that he was making things up just to "get in her pants" or something. He needed to find a way to evade becoming a Death Eater – and if Ginny Weasley was as smart as her reputation made her out to be, there was a possibility, a mere shining ray of hope that could help him. And he would do nothing to endanger that. _"Perhaps she can figure out something_," Draco thought fervently to himself, although he hardly dared to hope so. Thus far they had found nothing, absolutely no way against it. But if they say that two heads are better than one, then certainly four heads were better than three. Maybe, just maybe, they could find a way.

Ginny returned to her dormitory hoping and praying that nobody had decided to stay up, lest they ask her where she'd been. True, the common room had been empty when she left, but that didn't mean that someone wouldn't have decided to get up again. And of course, just as her luck had it, she was right.

The first thing she noticed as she crawled in through the portrait hole was a figure sitting in one of the overstuffed armchairs by the fireplace. A closer look at the figure's messy black hair showing over the top of the chair immediately gave the answer to whom it was.

"Ginny?" Harry said, squinting through the darkness at her at the sound of her approaching footsteps. "Where've you been running off to?" He was looking at her suspiciously through his round glasses, as though he could tell that perhaps she had been doing things that perhaps she shouldn't.

"I wouldn't call going to the kitchens for some food 'running off'," Ginny lied smoothly.

"Food?" Harry asked. "But you were at dinner, right? So why would you need to sneak off to the kitchens in the middle of the night?"

"If you had seen me at dinner, Harry, then you would have noticed that I hardly ate anything. I wasn't feeling well; my stomach was absolutely killing me. Lady Problems," she added, giving him a smile and a wink, knowing that this lovely tidbit of information would prevent him from asking more questions.

Blushing furiously with a look of slight revulsion on his face, Harry mumbled something incomprehensible and turned back around in his seat, fumbling nervously with his schoolbag which sat beside him, clearly hoping that she would say nothing more that would cause him further discomfort.

Trying not bust out laughing, Ginny said cheerfully, "Good night, Harry!" before skipping up the stairs to the girl's dormitory.

She lay down upon her bed for awhile trying to get to sleep, but was finding it difficult. Given the amount of sleep (or lack thereof) she'd had in the past seventy-two hours or so, it should have been relatively easy, but her mind just refused to shut off. She was amazed at the strange turn her life had taken all in a couple of days. She had gone from totally focusing solely on school to worrying about and trying to help one of her most-hated enemies.

"_Well,_" Ginny corrected herself. _"I never hated him, really._" And this was true. Neither Draco nor Blaise nor Pansy had ever given her much of a problem personally, other than making snide comments such as calling her "Potter's girlfriend" or "Weaselette" whenever she was around Harry, Hermione, or Ron. Her main issue with them had been solely based off of Ron's and Harry's problems with him, and the fact that his father was a known Death Eater. But that was before she had known the full story. And she couldn't exactly help that now. The point was now she knew, and now she was involved, if only by chance. And now that it appeared they were willing to accept whatever help they could get, she would put all of herself into trying. It would be difficult, certainly, perhaps the greatest challenge of her life. Who had, after all, found a way of standing up directly against You-Know-Who without getting killed? Yes, a challenge it would certainly be. But then again, she had never been one to turn down a challenge.

Slowly but surely the thoughts running circles around her head dwindled until her eyes closed in sleep, and her subconscious mind was greeted by her dreams as though they had been patiently waiting for her arrival.

_She was practicing Quidditch with the Gryffindor team outside. It was apparently evening, for the sky was a deep, serene blue, the color of cornflowers, and the night's first stars were beginning to dot the sky. For some reason she was playing Seeker rather than Chaser, which was her usual position, and as she flew above the other players searching for the Snitch, she caught a glint of gold out of the corner of her eye near the edge of the Forbidden Forest. "The Snitch," she murmured to herself, zooming off at once towards the forest, not bothering to wonder why it had strayed so far when it was supposed to be charmed to stay within the confines of the Quidditch field. As she arrived closer, the Golden Snitch was playing in and out of the reaches of her vision. She flew closer, dodging tree branches and squinting through the leaves as her eyes roamed the air before her. All of a sudden she entered a grassy clearing within the forest, and through the nearly waist high grass, she could see the Snitch. She landed, for the Snitch seemed to be resting upon the ground, yet as she walked towards the spot where she had seen it, she realized it wasn't the Snitch: It was Draco. The golden glint she'd seen had been the top of his head, which shone gold in the fading sunlight. "Ginny," he said, looking up at her in surprise, yet he looked pleased to see her. She, in turn, found that she had wanted, almost desperately, to see him as well. He stood up and walked toward her, gently grasping her face in both hands and pulling her in to kiss him. But before their lips could meet, a flash of green light blasted through the clearing, and Draco fell slowly forward into her arms, his grey eyes blank and unseeing._

_----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

Over a month had passed since her meeting with Draco in the Astronomy Tower, and Ginny still hadn't heard back from him to see what they were going to do in the way of discussing their – or rather, _his – _options. True, she hadn't yet been able to come up with a breakthrough idea, but she had grown restless from waiting. Patience had never been one of her virtues, and this time was no different. She would have thought that they had forgotten about her, but she didn't think so. He had seemed sincere in the tower…

She was sitting in the library with Ally and Cass; it was one of their free periods, and they were currently working on a particularly nasty three-foot long essay for potions on the discovery, properties, and effects of the Wolfsbane Potion. Instead of completely focusing on the essay, however, they were plotting which potions would be best used on Snape to either a) remove whatever long, thorny stick was shoved up his arse or b) cause him a certain amount of pain or embarrassment for setting them such difficult homework. They had just about decided upon a Giddiness Potion, which would cause him to skip and dance and sing through the hallways, when Ginny, out of the corner of her eye, saw Pansy walking. Pansy, as she turned to head out of the library, almost imperceptibly jerked her head towards the door, indicating to Ginny that she should follow.

"I'll be right back," Ginny said, standing up and stretching her legs. "Bathroom," she added.

"Alright," Ally said, still chortling over the thought of Snape dancing around like some flapping, overgrown bat in his preferred attire of black robes. Cass, in turn, nodded her brunette head without looking up, snorting in barely suppressed laughter every once in a while as she copied passages directly from the book to her essay.

Ginny turned into the corridor outside the hallway, just in time to see Pansy's retreating figure walk around the corner to her right. Ginny quickly followed, though she made sure to stay back a bit so that any passersby in the hallway would not notice that she was pursuing the older Slytherin girl. Pansy then, once they were in a deserted hallway, slipped inside of a girl's bathroom. After making sure that the corridor was still empty, Ginny slid in after her.

Pansy did not give any acknowledgement to her presence at first; she was checking underneath all the stalls to make sure that they were indeed alone. Only after she was sure that no one was there to overhear them did Pansy turn to face Ginny. She smiled and inclined her head towards Ginny, her short dark hair falling into her face as she did so.

"How are you, Ginny?" she asked, cocking her head slightly to the side.

"I'm fine, I guess," Ginny replied. "Is everything still okay with you three?"

"Nothing's changed, I suppose. We've all just been rather busy; we have our NEWTS this year, you know."

Ginny nodded, looking around the bathroom, feeling rather awkward about carrying on a conversation with someone she had only really talked with once before. Pansy didn't seem to share in this unease, however, and continued the conversation.

"There's a Hogsmeade trip tomorrow for Halloween. Blaise, Draco and I were wondering if you'd like to join us."

"And if someone sees us all just hanging out?" Ginny replied.

"Don't worry about it," Pansy replied smirking. "We won't be in Hogsmeade anyway."

"But I thought you just said that we were going to Hogsmeade," Ginny said, a look of utter confusion adorning her freckled face.

Pansy laughed at this look, her eyes sparkling mischievously. "I never actually said that we were going to go to Hogsmeade. I simply said that there was a Hogsmeade trip. We will act as if we are going to the village with the rest of our classmates, and from there we will Apparate to Malfoy Manor."

"Will we be able to Apparate from Hogsmeade? Not to mention that I can't apparate in the first place. I'm only a sixth-year." Ginny said.

"It's a wizarding village," Pansy replied. "They can't prevent Apparating in a village where wizards are constantly coming and going. And there is always Side-Along Apparition."

"And what about Draco's father?" asked Ginny anxiously.

"Draco's mother sent Draco a letter yesterday informing him that Lucius will be gone for the next couple of weeks on some mission for the Dark Lord." As she said the words "Dark Lord", Pansy's gaze hardened.

Ginny nodded. "So I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Meet us at the Hog's Head," Pansy replied. "No one we know will be in there."

And with that Pansy slipped out the bathroom door, but Ginny remained standing in front of the cracked row of mirrors feeling strangely excited, but not quite knowing why…


	5. A Halloween Venture

**A/N: For everybody that has read the story before I wrote this chapter, go back and reread the previous chapter, otherwise you are going to be extremely confused about the goings on in this chapter. I didn't really like how the last chapter ended, so I decided to change it a bit. **

**Anywho, here you all go. Enjoy. 3**

Draco woke up on Halloween morning feeling strangely awake. He crawled silently out of bed so as not to disturb his still-sleeping housemates and walked to the window. The sky outside was still dark: the sun had yet to rise, and a few stars still dotted the early morning sky.

"Ah, well," he thought to himself. "No point in going back to sleep now."

He ambled slowly towards the bathroom, yawning as he went, and started himself a nice, hot shower. After he was done he wrapped a towel around his waist and left the bathroom to search his wardrobe for something to wear. He selected some jeans and a T-shirt and re-entered the bathroom to change. He used a towel to wipe off the mirror, still steamed-up from his shower, brushed his teeth, and combed his long pale hair before heading out of the dormitory so that he could wander the grounds and have a cigarette, for it was far too early still for breakfast to be served in the Great Hall.

He pushed open the great oaken doors, shivering as the cool morning air assailed him. He walked down the way, pulling out a cigarette as he did so, looking up at the many towers and turrets of Hogwarts as he walked. None of the windows were yet lit up, because although the sky was beginning to lighten with the rising of the sun, it was barely past six, and it was a weekend. He finished his cigarette and flicked it into the grass where it was extinguished immediately by the dew that coated the grass like tiny crystal beads. He simply stood there for awhile, observing the pure tranquility of the grounds and castle, still, without any hint of life. He must have stood there for an hour or so, simply gazing about him, until both the chill and the gradual appearance of lights dotting the windows of Hogwarts informed him that it was time to return inside. So he did.

Ginny awoke to the sounds of people moving about her, getting dressed and talking. She knew it was probably time to get up, but she didn't want to. She was warm and cozy under the blankets, and leaving that comfort just wasn't a feasible option in her mind. It was Saturday, damnit, and she wanted to sleep in…wait. "_It's Saturday!"_ Ginny thought to herself, suddenly more awake. Halloween. Malfoy Manor. And so she sat up, rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and headed to the bathroom to brush her teeth. She then chose to wear a pair of form-fitting jeans and a dark green button-up sweater with a white tank-top underneath. She started pulling her hair up into a ponytail as she usually did, but then decided against it, choosing instead to wear it down where it hung in a fiery tumbled of red locks.

She hurried downstairs, red hair streaming behind her like a comet's tail, barely stopping to say "hi" to Ally and Cass in the common room and went straight to the Great Hall to have some breakfast. She poured her ritualistic cup of coffee and selected a piece of toast to eat. She didn't know why she felt so energized (especially this early), but she did. _It's probably just the prospect of actually going somewhere different rather than just sitting around and doing nothing,"_ her mind told her. And so that was what she went with.

Every time somebody walked into the Great Hall Ginny's eyes leaped toward the doorway, watching for Draco, Blaise, and Pansy to enter. After she had been there for about ten minutes, they did. She could see that Blaise and Pansy were talking to each other and not paying much attention to anything else. But Draco's eyes sought her out immediately, and when their eyes met, he smirked and nodded his head, barely discernible to any but her. She nodded back, all of a sudden feeling rather awkward at the thought of going to his house. It wasn't like they were just going to be alone there, for obviously Blaise and Pansy were going as well. It was just a strange thought for her: sneaking off to the house of Draco Malfoy. If somebody had suggested this concept to her a month ago she would have first laughed her ass of, and then she would have hexed them for coming up with such a ridiculous idea.

After breakfast all the heads of houses called their respective students to them, checking the list of who was signed up to go to Hogsmeade so that none could try to sneak in. Apparently they didn't realize that in this case, _sneaking in_ to Hogsmeade wasn't the main issue: It was sneaking out. Ginny reached the front of the line where Professor McGonagall checked her name off of the roll of parchment she held in her hands and indicated to Ginny that she could go. So she set off on the way to the village of Hogsmeade where she would meet the three Slytherins at the Hog's Head.

Draco walked quickly with long strides across the grounds of Hogwarts, Blaise and Pansy struggling to keep up behind him.

"Will you slow down, already?" Blaise hissed from behind him, slightly out of breath.

"What?" Draco said turning around. "Oh, sorry, mate." And he slowed down his pace to match that of Blaise and Pansy.

"Goddamn," Blaise said, trying to regain his breath. "What's the big rush?"

"We haven't got all night, you know. We have to be back by nightfall before anyone realizes that we're gone. I would like to be able to spend at least a few hours at home," Draco replied somewhat distractedly, running his hand through his hair.

They walked in silence the rest of the way, glad that they would be able to get away from Hogwarts for at least a little while. Not that they hated Hogwarts or anything, for they all three did well in their classes, but going to Malfoy Manor, now that they knew how to Apparate in order to get there, would be a welcome respite. Otherwise they'd have to wait for the Christmas holidays to have a break, and anyway, Draco was almost out of cigarettes, which his mother refused to send him.

They entered the village and passed by many of the shops: Honeydukes, The Three Broomsticks, Zonkos, and Dervish and Banges. But they didn't stop until they reached the Hog's Head, marked by the creaking wooden sign with the severed pig's head. There they entered into a dingy, poorly-lit room that smelled of dirty straw and goats. Though the light was scarce, it was easy for them to pick out Ginny: her red hair made her rather conspicuous. They joined her at the lopsided wooden table where she sat, and seated themselves in chairs so unsteady that it seemed as though they'd collapse as soon as you'd looked at them.

Draco spoke to Ginny in undertone, making sure that the bartender (who was staring pointedly at the four of them) could not hear. "We'll go out near the Shrieking Shack," he said. "Nobody in their right mind will be anywhere near there on Halloween, because of the ghosts, and it's pretty open so that we'll be able to see if anyone's coming. Got it?"

Ginny nodded, anticipation building inside her, although she didn't show it.

"Shall we, then?" Blaise asked, and Pansy replied, "We shall."

They exited together and turned right down the road toward the direction of the Shrieking Shack. They didn't worry about being seen together for none of their classmates, they knew, would be found this far down the road, preferring instead to stay near the beginning of the village where all the good shops were. As the rickety, boarded-up figure of the Shrieking Shack loomed into view before them they quickened their pace, reaching a spot that was partly concealed by a copse of trees, but not so much that they wouldn't be able to see anyone coming up toward them.

"Alright then," Blaise said, looking not at them, but through the trees to make sure that no one else was around. "Are we ready?"

They all nodded, and Draco, turning to Ginny, said, "You're going with me, because I'm less likely than them to leave any part of you behind."

Ginny snorted, although her insides were twisting in a certain horror at the thought of leaving some parts that she was rather attached to behind. "And how exactly does one do Side-Along Apparition?" Ginny asked, somewhat apprehensively.

Draco laughed as he noticed her hesitance, and said. "Relax, it's simple. All you have to do is hold on to my arm."

Ginny wanted to ask if Apparating hurt, but her pride wouldn't let her. Instead she stood at Draco's side and gripped his arm, shivering either from apprehension at Apparating or the bodily contact; she knew not which. Draco didn't appear to notice this, however, for Pansy was starting the countdown so that they would arrive at Malfoy Manor at precisely the same time.

"Three…two…"

And in the moment before Pansy said "one" Draco turned to look at Ginny. He saw that she was indeed uneasy from the way she was biting her bottom lip and squeezing her eyes shut. Without thinking, he lifted his left arm, the one not held in Ginny's vice-like grip, and placed his hand gently atop hers where she clutched his arm, seeking to calm her. She looked up at him, a strange inquisitiveness replacing the anxiety on her pale face, her jade-green eyes searching, penetrating into his mercurial ones. But then…

"_One!_" Pansy cried, and Draco tore his gaze away from Ginny and turned into the compressing, suffocating feeling that accompanied Apparating.

With a loud pop, all four of them arrived in a room that all but Ginny had been in several times before. The furniture was all dark, highly-polished oak, and the huge four-poster canopy bed had carvings of entwined serpents snaking their way up the wood. The silken sheets and comforter that covered the bed were a deep forest green, and lying on them, Ginny thought, would surely be the quintessence of comfort and bliss. The ceiling was midnight blue, almost black, more of a tint than a color, and she could see what appeared to be stars aligned in their constellations, and brighter dots that had to be planets, and bigger than all was the waxing crescent moon, occasionally obscured by thin streams of real cloud that rolled over it. All Ginny could think of as she observed it all was: "Wow."

Draco gave a small cough and Ginny jumped. She had been so interested in the room around her that she had forgotten that she still grasped Draco's arm.

"Sorry," she said, stepping away from him a bit hastily.

Blaise and Pansy were already moving towards the back of the room where a loveseat and two chairs that were the same color as the bedding were in front of the large, elaborate fireplace. Draco and Ginny followed them; Blaise and Pansy had seated themselves in the chairs, so Ginny sat at the far end of the loveseat as Draco pulled out his wand, muttered _"Incendio", _and a blazing fire appeared, roaring and spreading its warmth to the rather chilly room. He then moved toward the loveseat, sitting at the end opposite Ginny, careful to leave space between them so as not to make her uncomfortable.

Draco let out a long sigh, stretching out his legs and leaning his head back against the loveseat.

"Finally," he murmured. "I hate those damned leather couches in the common room."

Pansy smiled, saying, "Would you like me to get us all something to drink?"

"What?" said Draco distractedly: he had almost fallen asleep. "Oh, right. No, I'll get it."

He moved to a cabinet with glass doors and pulled out a slightly dusty bottle of dark, red wine that didn't have a label.

"Elf-made," he said at Ginny's inquiring look. "The best."

He then grabbed four crystal wine glasses and poured them each half-full before handing one to each of them.

Ginny took a sip of the wine, swirled it around in her mouth before swallowing, savoring the taste. Draco was right – it was damn good.

"I should probably go let Mother know that we're here," Draco said rolling his eyes and mock-glaring at Blaise and Pansy. "She'd be offended if she didn't get to fawn over you all, as usual. I swear, if she could, she'd find a way to kidnap you two."

Blaise and Pansy smiled knowingly, but Ginny said, "Does she know that I'm here?"

"Of course," Draco said. "I found out a long time ago that I can't hide anything from my mother. She'll probably end up trying to take you in too."

Ginny laughed, but she was feeling the nervousness that always comes with being in a strange place with people you scarcely know and meeting someone she had never heard good things about. But she had never heard good things about Draco, either, so there was a high chance his mom had been thrown into the same stereotype as him. Her wine glass was now empty, so she decided to get up and walk around. She had never liked just sitting around; she was too energetic for that.

"Damn," she said, talking more to herself than anyone else in particular as she walked around the bed and ran her hand over the thick silk comforters. "What I wouldn't give to sleep in a bed like this."

Blaise and Pansy snorted in laughter at this statement. Pansy at least had the grace to try to make her laughter sound like a cough, but Blaise said, "Careful, Draco. I think she's hinting that she'd like to crawl into bed with you."

Draco and Ginny both glared at them. "I didn't mean _this _bed," Ginny snapped. "I said one _like _it."

"Whatever," Blaise said chuckling. "I think we all know what you meant."

Ginny grabbed a pillow from the bed at the exact time Draco grabbed one of the decorative pillows from the loveseat. Both simultaneously threw their ammo at Blaise's head, where by the time his head snapped back from the hit in the face it was thrown forward again by the pillow that hit him in the back of the head. Ginny may have been small, but she had a good arm; she was a Chaser, after all.

"Hey!" Blaise whined pathetically. "Not fair, mates. That's double-teaming."

Draco and Ginny both laughed, and Pansy seemed to be choking on her wine. They were all more at ease now: throwing pillows at Blaise's head seemed to lighten Ginny's tension considerably. Blaise was still glaring at the both of them; although they could tell he was trying not to laugh as well. Finally Draco and Ginny stopped laughing and returned to their places on the loveseat. This time, however, neither was careful enough about leaving space between them, and the loveseat wasn't that big in the first place, so that when Draco leaned back and resumed his previous position, his hand brushed hers, and he could feel the heat, like fire, emanating from her.

"Well, now that the pillow war is over," Pansy said. "Shall we go tell your mother that we're here? You know how she gets when we deprive her of her chance to see us."

"Yes, I suppose we should," Draco replied. "Blaise, go get her."

"Me?" Blaise pouted. "Your house, your mother, you do it."

"Lazy git," Draco said, an ironic smile adorning his face.

But he got up and left the room through a door to their right, and Ginny could hear the sound of his feet receding down a staircase. After about ten minutes he returned saying, "Blaise, Pansy, Mother wants you. She's in the kitchen, and she said she needed to question you about something or other."

After sharing a look of confusion and shrugging Blaise and Pansy left out the door. As soon as they had done so Draco poured himself another glass of wine and sat down beside her, saying, "We'll be joining them in the parlor in a bit. First she wants to have time to fawn over her second and third children while the house elves are preparing the, er, _tea and biscuits_."

He grimaced as he said the last sentence, as though the thought of tea and biscuits was too fluffy and feminine for such a masculine figure as he. Ginny, of course, noticed this and sniggered, saying, "What? Draco doesn't like tea and biscuits?"

He shot her a look and smirked, replying, "No, _Draco_ doesn't. I'm more of a coffee person, actually. But what about you? What does _Ginny _like?"

Ginny felt a blush try to creep up her cheeks: it almost seemed like there was something else implied with that statement. But her pride wouldn't allow her to back down from the insinuated challenge, so she forced the blush to go away, turned to Draco with an impish glint in her cat-like eyes, tilted her head, thinking, and then said:

"I like coffee, too. Preferably with cinnamon or hazelnut. I like flying and I like sitting outside and watching the stars. I like writing, mostly poems, but give me any subject in any form and I can write it better than anyone I've met. I like the color silver and I like school. Not just because I'm good at it, but because it offers me a challenge. And I _never _back down from a challenge."

She spoke this all calmly and coolly, the glint in her eyes growing brighter and her lips slowly curving into a smile, so gradually, like angel wings unfolding, that it completely enraptured Draco, and held his gaze as though by magic, or perhaps it was just the wine going to his head. She was turned facing him, her eyes still on him, looking quite satisfied with herself. And feeling that he couldn't let her win, Draco moved his face so that there were scarcely inches between them.

"Never?" he asked, speaking softly, a smirk still on his lips. The scent of him, a mix of smoke and autumn's chill, threatened to overcome her senses. She could feel his arm brushing against hers, and the warmth and strength radiating from him. But she would not let him win this little game for two reasons: one, because she was not the type of girl to just throw away her morals and let some guy she barely knew, however attractive he was, think he could get her just like that; and two, because she was too prideful to let him win in the first place.

The smile on Ginny's lips widened and she stood up, leaving him sitting there as she walked away from the loveseat.

"Never," she said as she turned to stare at him, her arms crossed in front of her.

But there was something like approval that shone in Draco's grey eyes as he looked back at her. Ginny had been expecting to see something more like disappointment. So why in Merlin's name was he looking at her like that? It was a question to be figured out later, for at that moment a house elf entered the room, bowing so that his long nose was nearly touching the stone floor.

"Madam Malfoy will see the two of yous in the parlor now," he squeaked.

"Thank you, Turkin. You can tell my mother that we're on our way."

As the elf left the room bowing Draco stood up and walked toward the door.

"We better get down there quickly," he said, beckoning her towards the doorway, "before my mother thinks that we've been up here cavorting like a couple of teenagers."

Ginny stood with Blaise, Draco, and Pansy in the parlor. They were saying goodbye to Draco's mother, for it was now time to return back to Hogsmeade so that they could return with the rest of the students to Hogwarts. Madam Malfoy, or Narcissa, as Ginny had been told to call her, had received Ginny as warmly as if the two had known each other all their lives. It appeared that Narcissa had been questioning Blaise and Pansy about her, wondering what a Weasley could possibly want in dealing with her son, and then whether or not she had proven herself trustworthy. Blaise and Pansy had reassured her in both of these senses, so that when Ginny and Draco joined them Narcissa's doubts had been assuaged.

Now, however, it was time that they Apparated back lest their absence be noticed. So they said goodbye once again to Narcissa, who said that it had been lovely to see Blaise and Pansy again, to meet Ginny, and most of all to see her son. Right as they were getting ready to Apparate, however, Narcissa pulled Ginny aside, assuring them that this wouldn't take long.

"Ginny, I do hope you understand what you are getting yourself into," Narcissa said.

"I believe I do," Ginny said, looking her straight in the face to show that she was ready to face whatever could happen.

"There are forces, unimaginable powers that my husband has at his command. You four will not be able to overcome him through force, but only through cunning. Do you understand me?"

"Yes. And believe me, I'll do whatever I can to try," Ginny said, feeling that the weight of the bond between mother and son was now upon her if the survival of that bond was to be ensured.

"In that case, I thank you, Ginny," Narcissa said, tears welling into her blue eyes. "And I pray that you can succeed where I and the others have failed. Now go, before you four are caught sneaking back in to the school."

Ginny felt a certain solemnity resting upon her in that moment that she walked back to where the others stood. Without being told to do so she grasped on to Draco's arm, this time ready for the rather unpleasant feeling of Apparating. Pansy once again counted down, and they turned simultaneously into nothingness and appeared with a slight pop at the Shrieking Shack.

Ginny sat in the Slytherin common room with Blaise, Pansy, and Draco, laughing and talking and drinking wine. It had now been nearly six weeks since their trip to Malfoy Manor on Halloween, and nearly every night since then had been spent in the company of the three Slytherins in their common room. After all the Slytherins (save for Draco, Blaise, and Pansy, of course) had retired to bed, Draco would cast his Patronus, using it as a messenger to let Ginny know that it was safe to come. And to be sure that no one awoke during the middle of the night and interrupted them Pansy had cast a rather clever charm in the doorway of all the dormitories so that whomever had awakened and was about to come down to the common room would suddenly become extremely tired, forget why they had gotten up in the first place and go back to bed. It was a foolproof system, and so far, one that had served them well.

Draco sat in the chair next to Ginny's, and across them on the couch were Blaise and Pansy. They had just been listening to a story told by Ginny about all the times she used to break into the broom-shed and use each of her brothers' brooms in turn, yet they were too dense to ever notice the fact.

Blaise chuckled. "Let me get this straight," he said. "Out of seven children, your parents only had one that was actually clever?"

Ginny laughed. "No, Bill and Percy were both top students when they went here. Fred and George are both smart in their own way, they just chose not to apply it to their schoolwork."

They continued their conversation, but Draco chose not to join in, preferring instead to sneak glances at Ginny whilst they weren't paying attention to him. The way she laughed was absolutely endearing. She'd throw back her head and laugh with complete abandon, shoulders heaving, her face going slightly red, although perhaps the wine was at fault for this as well as the laughter.

Draco had discovered over the past few weeks that little Ginny Weasley had quite a taste for wine. She had never gotten to the point where she was drunk. Rather, the alcohol seemed to make her even more lucid. He had discovered many things about her in the past few weeks, in fact, and each new thing made him feel like he was getting ever closer into figuring out the riddle that was Ginny. He knew that she loved intelligent conversation, but tempered it with jokes and laughter. He knew that she was a great writer, and had even read some of her works. He knew that she wanted to be a Healer for the sake of helping people, and not for the money. She was good in all her classes, but Potions was her best subject. Even Snape liked her because she was so proficient in his class, so proficient that he had moved her up to the seventh year potions class so that she could complete her NEWTS early. He knew that when she was sad a cloud would seem to pass over her eyes, extinguishing their gleam. And when she was happy, her eyes would alight with that happiness, and her mouth would curve into a smile that was angelic and devious at the same time. He knew all these things, yet he found himself wanting to know more. She intrigued him more certainly than any other girl he knew had managed to do. The nights where Ginny was forced not to come were spent rued in Draco's mind. Her presence was one that was becoming as natural to him as breathing, and he waited for the hours spent in her company.

Ginny was laughing and joking with Blaise and Pansy as though they had always been friends. They were great company, but at the moment, her mind was scarcely paying attention to their conversation. She was glancing at Draco out of the corner of her eye, and she could see him watching her. He had been like this all night, not talking, sharing hardly more than a smile with any of them. She was worried: Perhaps he had heard something new about becoming a Death Eater that he had not yet shared with them? Once again, her curious nature appeared. She wanted to know why.

"Hang on a minute," Ginny said, interrupting Blaise. "Draco?"

Draco seemed to snap out of his reverie. "Huh?" he said vaguely.

"Can I talk to you outside for a moment?" Ginny said, gesturing toward the French doors that led to a balcony outside.

"Oh. Sure."

Blaise and Pansy shared questioning glances, but neither said anything. Ginny and Draco both rose up and walked toward the door and stepped out onto the snow-covered balcony. The moment they were outside, Draco pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and lit one up, first offering one to Ginny, which she graciously denied.

"Yes?" he asked, smirking slightly.

"Is something wrong?" Ginny asked, cocking her head at him," her teeth chattering slightly from the cold. "You've been quiet all night."

She sounded sincerely concerned, and her question surprised Draco.

"Wrong?" he repeated. "Oh, no, nothing's wrong."

"Then why've you been so quiet?" Ginny asked bemusedly.

"Just thinking, I suppose," he said, turning to look out over the grounds from where they stood.

"About what?" Ginny asked, putting her hand on his arm so that he would look up at her.

Draco jumped as she suddenly touched him, as though he had been burned, and Ginny quickly moved her hand away, looking rather embarrassed. Feeling guilty, Draco said, "You're cold."

"I'm fine," Ginny said, but the goosebumps that had appeared on her arms and the chattering of her teeth gave her away.

"Here," he said, a candid gentleness in his voice, removing his sweater and handing it to Ginny. There was a certain irony about Ginny wearing a Slytherin sweater, but neither of them focused on that right then.

Ginny was staring at him with a fierceness in her eyes, not an angry sort of fierceness, but a determined, yet quizzical one. As the past few weeks had gone by, she had noticed that she had started to get to know Draco. Not know of him, or how he presented himself in front of others, but know him as himself. He was intelligent, passionate, stubborn, and prideful. He challenged her, and she challenged him right back. But there was never any real venom in their challenges, and she knew that they both enjoyed it.

She stepped closer to him without realizing it.

"You never answered the question," she said.

"Nothing's wrong," Draco said chuckling. "Don't worry so much, it's not good for you."

Ginny remembered these to be the very words she had spoken to him when they were in the Astronomy tower, many weeks ago. She laughed, and a glow of honest happiness spread across her face. Draco smiled too as he noticed this, but neither said anything. They stood there for awhile, gazing up at the stars that were sprinkled across the night sky like sand, each delving into their own thoughts.

Draco lit up another cigarette, which drew Ginny from the memory of an incident that had occurred a few weeks ago, an incident that had occurred when she had been alone with Draco, like right now…

"That day," she began suddenly, "at your house."

"What about it?" Draco replied.

"Well," Ginny said hesitantly, blushing slightly, "when you, er, moved closer to me on the couch. You wanted me to back off, didn't you?"

Draco smirked, laughing quietly to himself and taking a drag off of his cigarette.

"I can honestly say yes and no to that question," Draco said, still laughing.

Ginny punched him lightly on the arm. "Asshole," she said. "Just answer the question."

"Yes," he said, still not facing her.

"Why?" Ginny inquired.

"Because I would have thought much less of you if you hadn't," Draco said simply.

Ginny nodded, wanting to ask him to elaborate, but she bit her tongue. Instead she said, "Perhaps we should go back inside before Blaise and Pansy think something's wrong."

"Yeah," he agreed, flicking his cigarette into the night.

And so they returned inside to the accusatory, yet amused, looks of Blaise and Pansy. As Ginny and Draco comprehended this fact, they simultaneously rolled their eyes, earning a round of sniggering from Blaise.

"Shut up," Draco said, throwing a look toward Blaise. Then, turning to Ginny he said, "I honestly don't know why I put up with him."

"It's because I'm_ sooo_ good-looking," Blaise replied with a straight face, taking an elegant sip of his wine.

"Yes, that must be it," Draco said cringing in disgust.

Pansy laughed. "Enough of the lover's quarrel," she said. "It's already 3:00. Ginny needs to be getting back now so that she can get some sleep."

"Yeah," Ginny said. "I've got a potions test and a transfiguration test tomorrow. I'll see you all tomorrow."

And after a chorus of "goodbyes", Ginny left out the door and returned to her own dormitory.

Ginny gathered all of her vials together, tucking them inside her cauldron. She had just finished her potions test. It had gone alright, as she'd known it would. She wouldn't know her marks until next week, but she was sure she had done well. After all of her things were collected Ginny grabbed her bag and left the potions room, turning down the corridors of the dungeons as she made her way back up toward the main part of the school.

She had been late enough in getting all her things together that the corridors were now nearly empty. She was about to go up the staircase when from behind her came the sound of, "Oi! Weasley!"

She spun around and was met with the sight of Zacharias Smith. He was walking toward her with an air of arrogance, his eyes greedily roaming over her. Ginny recoiled inwardly but said coolly, "What?"

"I tried to catch you after potions, but you'd already gone," he said, seeming to be talking more to her chest rather than to her.

"Well, what do you want?" Ginny said impatiently. "I've got to get to class."

"Do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me this weekend?"

"Er, sorry, Smith, but I can't. I'm not going at all. I've got far too much homework to do."

"Homework can wait," he said edgily. "Come on, Ginny. Just save us both the trouble and say yes."

"No," Ginny said firmly, beginning to become rather irritated. "I'm not going to neglect my studies just because some egotistical asshole wants to try to get me into his bed!"

Smith blushed furiously. "What, are you scared that I'm going to be better than Potter?"

"Honestly," Ginny said. "I have never done anything like _that _with Harry, nor do I plan to. But that's not the point. Leave me alone before you make me late. You are seriously pissing me off."

She turned to walk up the staircase, but Smith grabbed her arm with a vice-like grip and pulled her back, almost causing her to fall over. Ginny was about to pull out her wand and hex the bastard, but she never got the chance because all of a sudden there was a flash of light and Smith was blasted back against the stone wall of the corridor.

"What the - ," he began, hastily trying to get up from the floor. But he was cut off short as a tall figure stepped out of the shadows and closed a large hand around Smith's throat.

"She said no," Draco hissed as Smith's face steadily turned blue from the lack of oxygen resulting from Draco's hand around his throat. "Now get out of here before I personally deprive you of your ability to have children. Do you understand me?"

Smith nodded fearfully. Draco glared at him disgustedly and threw him onto the floor. Smith hastily stood up and got out of arms reach before turning back, sneering at Draco and saying, "What do you care anyway, Malfoy? It's just Weasley."

Draco pulled out his wand threateningly and pointed it toward the general vicinity of Smith's male parts. Getting the idea, Smith ran rather than walked up the corridor and out of view.

"Are you okay?" Draco asked, turning to face Ginny.

"I could've handled him myself, you know," Ginny said glaring at him.

"I know," Draco said amusedly. "But I've wanted an excuse to hex that prick for the past two years."

"Well, thanks," Ginny said laughing. "But I really do have to get to class now."

He smiled at her, running his hands through his hair. Then, changing his smile into a smirk and adopting a sneering tone, he said, "Off to class now, Weasley, before I report you to the Headmaster for loitering in the dungeons."

Ginny laughed and said tauntingly, "Fine, Malfoy. I'll just report you for doing magic in the hallways."

"Touché," he replied, the ghost of a smile on his lips.

Ginny smiled, leaving Draco to stand behind her and watch her retreating figure head up the stairs and out of sight.

Draco lay upon his bed in the dormitory. It was past four o'clock in the morning, yet sleep evaded him. He kept reflecting back to the incident in the dungeon corridors. He had felt a sudden, unexplainable burst of anger at the sight of Smith looking at Ginny like that, like he was trying to undressing her with his eyes. He had tried to stay out of the way and let Ginny handle it so that there would be no awkward questions over why he was protecting Ginny, but after Smith grabbed her arm, Draco snapped. In an uncontrollable flare of anger his wand was out and Smith was sent flying across the hallway before Draco even had time to think

He had no idea why he had gotten so overly protective of her all of a sudden. It wasn't like he saw her as "his property" or anything – or was it? He didn't know. All he knew was that the way Smith had looked at her made Draco want to tear his insides out. Perhaps it was just all the time he had been spending with Ginny lately. Ginny was his friend now, and Draco was extremely loyal and protective when it came to those he cared about. He had lost far too many people in his life, mostly at the hands of his father; therefore, he let nobody get in the way of him and his friends. Lost in his reflections, Draco suddenly thought back to last night when he had stood with Ginny on the balcony. He remembered the way her face had shone as he repeated her own words back to her, and he smiled to himself in the dark. She was an entrancing creature, that much was certain. He wondered exactly where this companionship with Ginny Weasley was headed. It seemed as though Fate had decided to intervene in his life, carrying him in unknown directions.

"_I suppose I'll just have to see what happens," _Draco mused to himself, as sleep finally rose upon him like a wave carrying him under the water.


	6. Out of Sight, Out of Mind

**A/N: For those who are asking when the "action" will start, don't worry. I haven't forgotten the plot I started with; I've just been giving it some time to build everything up a bit. There's no sense for everything to happen at once. Just be patient - all will be known in good time. ;o**

Draco stood in the Owlery early one morning, a sheaf of parchment clutched in one hand, a cigarette held in the other. He took furious draughts from the cigarette, his face blank and hard, like a mask, where he faced out the window. He thought about tearing the letter to pieces, but then decided against it. It was a harsh reality check as to what still remained to be done. He had gotten lazy in the past couple of months, somewhat due to the arrival of Ginny to the scene. She had provided a distraction to the bitterness of his life, but that didn't change the fact that something needed to be done. They would have to think of something and think of something soon. Even sooner than they had thought. He glanced down at the parchment in his fist, and opened it up yet again. He read no more than the first line before crumpling it up again. "Fuck," he muttered to himself, barely managing to hold back the angry tears that threatened to fall from his eyes. But now was not the time for tears. Now was the time for action. He thought about calling Ginny and Blaise and Pansy together right then, but classes would be starting in a couple of hours. He would have to wait until later, then. For now he decided that he'd have to have his house elf send him a bottle of the finest fire whiskey from home. No barely-alcoholic wine for Draco tonight; no, tonight he would need something stronger.

Ginny walked with Cass and Ally to the Great Hall, all three yawning and stretching and rubbing sleep from their eyes. They had all been forced to stay up late last night, thanks to the hellish amount of Transfiguration homework McGonnagall had assigned them, and therefore each had only received around three hours of sleep.

"How does she expect us to be able to pay attention in class if she's kept us up the whole night before with her stupid, three-foot long essays? Frankly, I don't give a damn about how you transfigure a porcupine into a pincushion," Ally mumbled angrily to herself.

"I know, I know," Ginny said tiredly. "But at least it's done now. I just need about four cups of coffee, and then I'll be good for at least a few hours."

She slumped into her usual seat at the Gryffindor table, Cass and Ally on either side of her. She automatically looked up toward the Slytherin table as she poured herself a cup of coffee, and what she saw woke her up more instantly and completely than the coffee would have. Draco's eyes met hers for no more than a second, but that second was all it took. Something was wrong. She didn't know how she knew it, but she did. She knew it more surely than anything else at that point. Neither Blaise nor Draco nor Pansy was giving any signs of misgivings, but that didn't matter. She knew Draco; she knew that hard, vacant look, the look he got when he had withdrawn so far inside his mind to contemplate something dire. Ginny's brain immediately started shuffling through its information, and the only conclusion that she could reach was that it had something to do with his father and/or becoming a Death Eater. But she also knew that she couldn't do anything about it just then. Classes were about to start, and she couldn't just pull him off into some broom closet or something to talk. They wouldn't have enough time, for one thing. She would have to wait until that night to find out. She didn't even care that it would mean going another night without much (if any) sleep. Something was up, but she could do nothing about it now. She just hoped that she would be able to get through the rest of the day without being driven crazy by not knowing, and most of all by not being able to help.

She gritted her teeth and returned to her coffee, trying desperately to make the time move faster. Finally it was time for class to start. Only a seemingly infinite number of hours left to go.

Blaise and Pansy helped themselves to toast and eggs, trying not to act like anything was wrong while they were around their other classmates. But it was, and they knew it. Draco had told them this morning that there was something he needed to tell them. He hadn't told them what exactly it was, and they had the sense not to push it. Everything would be known that evening once Ginny was with them to provide her input as well.

But whatever it was, it was something bad. Draco wasn't speaking much at all to anybody. His face was paler than normal, almost as colorless as the snow that blanketed the ground outside. His hands shook every time he reached for the cup in front of him, and twice he had nearly spilled coffee down his front as though he wasn't really paying any attention to what he was doing. Yet despite all this they could see in his eyes that he still possessed the same obstinacy that he'd always had. And that was, perhaps, the only thing that kept them from breaking down with worry as well.

Pansy spread some butter on her toast, and turned toward Draco. "Are you going to be okay?" she asked concernedly in an undertone, making sure that the rest of the table couldn't hear her.

Draco smirked at her, the smirk coming as easily to his face as though nothing was the matter.

"Do you doubt me?" he asked.

Pansy smiled back. Even though something was obviously wrong, he still tried not to show it. He was still trying to be their big, brave Slytherin prince.

"Of course not. But that doesn't mean you're okay," she replied, turning back to her toast, smiling although she knew that he was merely putting on a show for the sake of her and Blaise.

Draco turned back to his coffee, grateful that Pansy had accepted his words without pushing matters further. There was no reason for them to have to spend all day frantic with worry for his sake. They would find out later. For now, ignorance would be bliss. In their case, at least.

It was now the last class of the day: In Ginny's case, this was Charms. Ginny sat at her desk, waiting impatiently for class to end. It had been a long day. She needed to find out what was going on before it drove her mad.

"What's the matter, Gin?" Ally asked, peering at her best friend suspiciously from behind a pair of black-rimmed glasses. Ginny had been acting harried all day. She would practically run to each of her classes, get her homework done as quickly as possible without catching the parchment on fire from the speed of her writing, and then spend the rest of the class glaring at the clock before rushing out again as soon as class was over. Ally may not act serious a lot of the time, but she was smarter than her blonde hair gave her credit for. Something was up with Ginny.

"Wha - ," Ginny said, snapping out of her reverie. "Oh, nothing," she said distractedly. "I just really need to…er...get some sleep. I do not want to have to sit up late doing anymore homework tonight."

She faked a huge yawn, knowing that her embarrassingly feeble lie hadn't put Ally off one bit.

"Right," Ally said, still skeptical. But she returned to her Charms work, deciding to investigate Ginny's strange behavior later.

Ginny turned back to the clock. It was almost time. Less than a minute and she'd be free. Finally, the bell rang signaling the end of class. She jumped from her seat as though she was on fire, ran out the door and back to her dormitory as quick as possible. There waiting for her was Draco's Patronus, in the form of a huge silvery wolf. In Draco's voice it spoke to her, saying, "Come to the Room of Requirement. Ask for a room where you can talk without being discovered. " Then it rose majestically and dissipated before it could leap out of the room, silver skeins of vapor providing the only evidence of its presence.

Ginny quickly changed out of her school clothes, donning instead a pair of sweat pants and a tank top. She then rushed out of the dormitory and into the common room, nearly knocking over Ron as she made her way to the portrait hole.

"Oi! Watch it, will you?" Ron yelled back at her. Ginny doubted that he'd even recognized it to be her. At this point, she didn't care. She just wanted to find out what was wrong with Draco, and find out quickly. As always, her mind jumped to the worst-case scenario. What if Draco's father was taking Draco out of school now? What would Ginny do then? For some reason, the thought of Draco leaving Hogwarts gave Ginny a horrible sense of loss. He had become a refuge for her lately, a person with whom she could laugh and talk and argue with to forget about the pressures of school, among other things. The past few weeks had been great, if not a bit strange. She didn't want to lose that.

She finally made it to the open stretch of wall where lay the hidden entrance to the Room of Requirement. She walked back and forth past it three times. "_I need a room where I can talk without being discovered. I need a room where I can talk without being discovered. I need a room where I can talk without being discovered._"

She glanced up. An enormous wooden door was taking form into the previously empty stone wall. Before it had even completely appeared, she seized the handle and practically threw herself in. Draco, Blaise, and Pansy were already there, each seated upon an enormous couch that took up the whole back wall. Torches were set into the wall, throwing dancing shadows upon the floor. An abnormally long mahogany coffee table was in front of the couch; on it were a bottle of wine, a rather large bottle of fire whiskey, four glasses, and an assortment of snack foods and candy.

She walked quickly over to them and sat on the couch. "What's going on?" she said quickly, barely taking time to breathe. "I noticed at breakfast that something was wrong, and it's been driving me mad all day."

"Calm down, for Merlin's sake," Blaise said. "Here, drink this." He poured a shot of fire whiskey and handed the glass to Ginny, which she promptly downed in one gulp. She took a couple of breaths and said, "Now. Can somebody please inform me of what the hell is going on?"

"We don't know anymore than you do," Pansy said quietly. "Draco was waiting for you to get here so that he could tell us all at once."

Three heads simultaneously turned toward Draco. Draco poured himself some fire whiskey, drank it, ran a hand wearily over his eyes, and pulled a crumpled slip of parchment from inside his robes. He handed it to Blaise, and Pansy and Ginny leaned closer to him so that they could read it too. It said:

_Draco,_

_I am writing this letter to inform you that our master, the Dark Lord, wishes to initiate you as soon as possible. This cause for celebration was unfortunately caused by the death of three of our own in an unexpected Auror attack. Due to this, the Dark Lord demanded that you formally join us as soon as we can pull you away from Hogwarts without at first demanding suspicion from Dumbledore, for we must work to replace those three we lost. The Dark Lord has great plans that need to be put into action; our forces cannot afford to be diminished too much at this crucial point. Therefore, during the Easter Holidays you are to be commenced as a Death Eater. I know that you will receive this news as an honor and a privilege. I can only say for your sake that I hope you do not disappoint me. _

_Sincerely, Lucius Malfoy_

Ginny looked up at Draco, horror inscribed all over her face. "But," she spluttered. "No! He can't just pull you out of school and drag you off to become a Death Eater! Dumbledore would find out, Dumbledore wouldn't allow it to happen…" Her words dragged off into silence. She knew they were empty, futile words. You-Know-Who could do as much as he pleased, and he'd been doing so for quite awhile now. The only thing that remained was how to stop it.

Draco looked up at them, and he looked utterly defeated. "I've got a little over three months," he said, his voice dry from hardly using it all day. "Three months."

The room went silent. Nobody knew what to say to comfort Draco, for there was nothing they could say. It seemed hopeless that they could do anything. Suddenly the full might of what they were trying to oppose swam into view. They would have to face down You-Know-Who, the Death Eaters, and Draco's father in order to get Draco away safely. Draco may as well just consider himself dead. As Ginny thought this rather unhelpful, morbid thought, the beginnings of a plan formulated in her head. Mind working furiously, Ginny turned to Blaise and Pansy, pulling them aside. "I think I have an idea," she whispered.

"What?" Blaise asked rapidly.

"Not right now," Ginny said with an air of finality. "I need you and Pansy to go write a letter to Draco's mother. Tell her to find a way to make sure that Lucius is not at home during the Christmas holidays. We've got to be able to go there and discuss something with her without Draco's father interfering or knowing about it whatsoever. Hurry! Go!"

Without hesitating, Blaise and Pansy left the Room of Requirement. Ginny moved back toward the couch and sat beside Draco. He smelled strongly of fire whiskey, but he didn't look too terribly drunk; he looked to just be more withdrawn. But then again, maybe it was the fire whiskey. He even seemed to be too out of it to inquire about Blaise and Pansy's sudden absence.

"Draco?" Ginny said tentatively.

He offered her a smile, but it turned out looking more like a grimace. "So what now?" he asked.

She smiled back at him, but it was a forced smile. "I don't know," she replied honestly.

Draco looked up at her, searching her face for a hint of any sort of possibility. Her hair hung loose in crimson locks, trailing over her bare shoulders like fire. Her eyes shone like polished emerald in the dim lighting, and there he found fortitude. It was perhaps then that he realized that she had no ulterior motives for wanting to help him. At first it had been the general compassion that he'd come to know she possessed, but now it was because she sincerely cared about him.

"Thank you, Ginny," he said softly, his gaze completely lucid as he looked straight into her eyes.

She stared intently back at him, her mind searching for words to speak, but finding none. So she simply watched him, his long pale hair pulled out of his sharply angled face in a ponytail, his otherwise flawless skin appearing to be lined with experiences beyond his years. She lifted a slightly shaking hand and ran it along the side of his face and down his jaw line, as though hoping to erase some of the plights that had left their mark there, as one brushes away a cobweb.

Draco closed his eyes, trying to keep from shivering as the redhead's small fingers traced their way down his face. She gave him a reassuring smile and went to pull her hand away, but Draco grabbed tightly onto it and pressed his lips gently to the back of her hand without once taking his eyes from her. She inhaled sharply at the smooth feel of his lips on her skin, but he didn't appear to notice.

"We're going to pull this off, right?" he asked urgently, placing his other hand under her chin and pulling her face closer to his. He was near enough to her to see every freckle that was scattered across her face, close enough, despite the effects of the fire whiskey, to notice for the first time that there were flecks of gold among the green in her eyes.

Ginny smiled then, a roguish smile that seemed to make the gold in her eyes brighten. "Yes," she said with assurance. "We are."

"You have a plan," he said. It wasn't a question; it was a statement of fact. His tone sounded unsurprised, but his eyes were alight with a newfound determination.

"I do," she replied.

"Well, let's hear it, then," he said, reluctant to move away from her but eager to hear what she had to say.

"Well," she began dramatically. "You're going to have to die."

He shot her a cynical look, saying dryly, "Sounds good so far."

"Draco," she said, almost sternly, causing Draco to cringe. That tone reminded him of his mother. "How badly do you want to get out of this?"

He looked at her, the sardonic glint leaving his eyes as though replaced by a shadow. "I would do anything," he said quietly. And one look in those grey eyes told Ginny that he meant it. For the millionth time over the past couple of months she wondered how it must feel to have to stand against your own family in order to uphold your beliefs.

"Even ask for help?" Ginny asked, knowing full well how prideful he was.

"Help?" Draco repeated quizzically. "From whom?"

Ginny took a deep breath. "Dumbledore," she said.

"And what could he do?"

"Fake your death," Ginny said promptly. "We can set it up with Dumbledore so that as you get ready to leave Malfoy Manor with your father to become a Death Eater, a group Order members can ambush you. Someone – I don't know who – would have to take the Polyjuice Potion with some of your hair in it. Then, as your father is distracted by the ensuing fight, we could do a switch. The fake-you can lie on the ground and appear to be dead; that way, your father can say he saw your dead body with his own two eyes. Then we could go into hiding."

Draco sat there for awhile, stroking his chin contemplatively. It could just work. Of course, he, Blaise, and Pansy had thought of the whole "fake your own death" thing before. It was a classic. But they had known that Lucius would never believe his son was dead if he didn't see the body with his own eyes, and therefore would never stop searching for him. Lucius may have been malevolent, but he was also clever. The sudden, unexpected "death" of his son wouldn't draw him in for a moment. Ginny, however, had found a way to take care of that factor. There would still be some loose ends to tie up, such as what would be done with the "fake-him" after the switch, but for the most part it was extremely well thought out. But then, a thought entered his mind as he comprehended what Ginny had actually said.

"'We'?" he asked amusedly.

"What?" Ginny replied, a look of confusion upon her face.

"You said 'we'," Draco said. "'We could go into hiding'."

"Oh, shut up," Ginny said, half disgustedly, half smiling. "You know what I meant. My mind was kind of running at a hundred miles an hour at that point, I couldn't exactly get all of my words out straight."

Draco began laughing at the indignant look on Ginny's face. It was a relieved sort of laugh; the kind of laughter that flows like honey after a day spent brooding in despair. It felt good.

"You are _so_ immature," Ginny said rolling her eyes.

"You are _so_ in denial," Draco retorted, smiling wickedly at her.

"Well, is it a plan or what?" Ginny asked, hurriedly changing the subject before they got into another one of their "challenges".

"Yes," he said, his tone quickly changing from mischievous to business-like. "But are you sure that we can pull it off?"

"Where there's a will, there's a way," Ginny replied confidently.

"Indeed," Draco said thoughtfully.

"And what is _that _supposed to mean, Master Malfoy?"

"Oh, nothing," he said, the traditional Malfoy smirk adorning his features.

Ginny smiled as she looked up at him, glad to see that he was less despondent, and his smirk changed into a smile directed back at her. She shook her head slightly, the smile on her face widening as some apparent contemplation, unknown to Draco, entered her mind. A stray strand of hair fell into her face, and he brushed it away without thinking, the backs of his fingers trailing along Ginny's forehead.

"Did you know something, Ginny?" Draco asked, his fingers tracing loosely down Ginny's cheek. He wasn't looking directly at her, but rather seemed to be mesmerized by the sight of his hands on her skin, and the fact that she hadn't pulled away from his touch.

"What?" Ginny said softly.

"You're the only one that's given a damn about me without first having a reason to do so."

"What about Blaise and Pansy?" Ginny said. "They obviously care about you."

"Well, yeah," Draco said. "But that's different. We three were raised together, and we sort of bonded together based on our similar circumstances. But you have nothing in common with me in that sense, no reason to be here tonight whatsoever. And yet you are."

"I know," Ginny said vaguely, watching him intently. Where was this going? For the past couple of weeks she had not been able to keep Draco off of her mind. His presence was one she was becoming as accustomed to as eating or breathing. They had been there for each other, each helping the other even if they didn't really realize it. True, they had only known each other for a short while. But she found him to be completely intoxicating; in everything from the way he looked, to the way he smelled, to the way he spoke. And she realized then that her reasons for wanting to help him had little to do with only compassion anymore. Her reasons were partly selfish: She didn't want to lose him. _What is this?_ Ginny thought to herself, though her thoughts didn't seem to be hers to control any longer. _A Weasley and a Malfoy? _She said again to herself. _Yeah, right. _It was the first time the thought had really entered her mind, but she found that she didn't detest the idea. Quite the contrary, in fact.

They sat there like that for an instant, his quicksilver eyes piercing through her like ice, causing a shiver to crawl up her spine. But all of a sudden the moment was dispelled by the sudden opening of the door. They both jumped back from each other.

"Did you send it?" Ginny asked quickly as Blaise and Pansy entered the room, making a grand show of pouring herself some wine in order to cover up the blush she could feel rising steadily over her cheeks.

"Yes," Pansy said, moving to sit beside her on the couch. "Sorry it took so long; we had to make a couple of long detours around Peeves. Luckily we heard him before he could see us."

"Would you mind filling us in on the whole plan now?" Blaise asked. "I hate being kept in suspense."

So Ginny told them of the plan, to which they all agreed. There were still a few loose ends to be taken care of, but those could be dealt with when the time came. They would have to find a time soon to go to Dumbledore, and to figure out what exactly they were going to say in order to convince Dumbledore of Draco's sincerity. All they could do now was hope that everything turned out as planned.

After a few more glasses of fire whiskey and/or wine, they all four conceded that it was time for bed. It had been a tiring day for all of them, and sleep would be welcome. Blaise and Pansy made their way out the door side by side followed Ginny and then Draco. As Blaise and Pansy rounded the corner ahead of them, Draco hesitated for a second, but then pulled Ginny back by the door, kissed her soundly on the lips, and walked away wordlessly after his friends; out of sight, but not quite out of mind.


End file.
